Analysis of Child Abuse Using an Analytic Lens or Principle to Help Illuminate the Various, Essay Example

Introduction

Symptoms of child abuse have been illuminated in situations where a child is forced to deal with the psychodynamic underpinnings of a father’s inability to provide at an early age. “The child manifested early symptoms of an ego state involving complex manifestation of fantasy as a result of such traumatic child abuse at an early onset in life.” (Sugarman 1997). Research shows the age of which the loss occurred, the relationship to the parents’ as well as the reaction of the other parent to the traumatic experience all influence the child’s future development. The child tends to illustrate an aggressive nature later in life with relation to unresolved issue after the father passes away with relation to the mourning process and dealing with the aggressive tendencies of his/her personality. Further the child experiences traumatic anxiety with separation also known as separation anxiety.

Through the use of statistical methods it has been determined that in “Worchester, Massachusetts homeless and pre-school children of various ages has caused future emotional and psychological effects on the child as an adult.” (Gunderson 2009).  Hunger was measured by asking a number of subjects whether they had experienced any phase of hunger within the last year and to what extent. This project was called the Childhood Hunger Program. The classification range was severe hunger, moderate hunger and no hunger. Results showed that children that experienced severe to moderate hunger within the last year experienced anxiety and depression problems as children and later in adulthood. Co-variables considered with the study were ethnic background, geographic location, court ordered variables, developmental problems, income of the custodial parent, whether the other parent was in the child’s life, abuse and physical problems with the child and or/caretaker.

Child abuse is a serious problem. There are means to resolve this issue but before you go calling the Child Protection Service you should consider all factors with the situation. The living conditions, the physical and emotional conditions of the parents’, the present housing condition and the presence of support within the family should be considered. Further should be considered if the parents’ of the child you suspect of neglecting the child are doing so maliciously are simply because they cannot afford to provide. If they cannot afford to provide for the child it would be in the family’s best interest for you to take a proactive stance and help the family either financially or guide them to a source that could provide adequate food. The Child Protection Services is not geared to separating a family based on inadequate food in the home. They are geared towards keeping the family unit in tact whilst providing resources to help the family. They may intervene temporarily until the custodial parent can make arrangements to provide food for the child but they normally do not punish a person for being of low income. Research shows that there is more harm done to a child that is separated from their parents. The only way a child will be permanently removed from a home is for reasons of extreme legal abuse that cannot be fixed such as physical abuse, sexual. The average income of the family’s interview was approximately $11,200 annually and the family size was about 3 and of Puerto Rican decent predominantly. “Results showed that 50% of the children and or family experienced moderate hunger in the past year and 16% experienced severe hunger within the past year.” (Gunderson 2009).  Further research showed that parents and children that were living homeless or in shelters for the homeless were classified as severely hungry and experienced extreme emotional problems later in life. There was no gender and ethnic discrimination with relation to these situations studied.  Children with severe hunger experience were at a risk of 57% higher than those with no hunger experience of being homeless.

Results showed that pre-schoolers and school aged children tended to internalize behaviour problems and internalize the situation about hunger. This may have been due to the lack of support at home or the inability to learn to express emotions in a proper manner. Results further show the children experienced shame or guilt with relation to the feeling hunger because of coming from low income families. Depression and anxiety was related to the mother/father’s relation to the hunger issue. This essentially means there was transference of the parents’ feelings to the child. This relationship shows that there is a distinct collaboration between hunger and depression/anxiety in children. Before this study it was often presumed that childhood hunger had no relation to a child’s psychological and physical development. This study has since linked the two together in very strong relation with adverse effects to the parent and the child experiencing such hunger. There is no positive way to look at the situation of hunger. Hunger is not always an abusive situation morally but unfortunately legally it is described as a form of child abuse because a child has no control over whether they will be fed and has no means to make their own income to provide for themselves. It is a parent’s duty to provide for a child. The law and community sees the existence of a child and parent as a planned entity in that the parent should have enough knowledge to plan for situations that may adversely affect the child. Though there is no known cure for child abuse emotional support and public aid for food sources can help to eliminate the abuse of hunger. Abuse is the intentional deprivation of a needed source from a child however in some circumstances a single parent or underprivileged family simply cannot afford to provide the necessary essentials of food. How can we prevent children from having to go without food? Children are out most valuable assets therefore we must adequately prepare for situations that may lead to food deprivation by saving money, organizing and in necessary situations going to government agencies for food assistance. There is always help out there with schools, counsellors, agencies and shelters that provide free or discounted food. Taking care of a child’s physical need for food can help to minimize future emotional distress to the child. Often the parent’s are not educated to the sources available and the parent and child suffer quietly without avail. The United States has many available resources for the poor if one knows how to reach out for them. Often the system makes it difficult to qualify but I can assure you if your situation is of detriment you can receive assistance to feed and shelter you and your child. The key is outsourcing and making use of the resources. If one does not know how to attain the help then he/she should speak to someone that does! It is significant to note that child abuse through lack of food is real and it is classified as abuse legally. Children can be removed from the home for a lack of food in the home even though parents’ are struggling to do their best. The reason this is so is because there are available resources and if someone dos not use them then they are not fit to be parents. The child should never suffer for the ignorance of the parents’.

Works Cited

Sugarman, A. (1997) Psychodynamic Underpinnings of Father Hunger as Illuminated in the Analysis of an Adolescent Boy Retrieved November 26, 2009 from, http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=psc.052.0227a

Gunderson, C. (2009) Hunger: It’s Impact on Children’s Health and Mental Health Retrieved November 25, 2009 from, http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/110/4/e41