The childhood experience has great effects of the individual’s social and personality development. A maltreatment experience during childhood can impact the development of emotions and behaviors through adulthood. As per definition, a child maltreatment is a child abuse and neglect that happens to those children ages 18 years old and below. WHO presents the common child maltreatment that includes physical and emotional abuses. Particularly, the types of child maltreatment are physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and exploitation . These maltreatments result in the potential harm in terms of health, behavioral development, survival, dignity, and trust of the children. However, Kendal-Tackett affirms that even the non-abusive individuals have the dysfunctional behavior such as chronic depression, mental illness, and substance abusing parents. It only implies that the unequipped parent or the upbringing of parents to their children is the product of their poor parenting styles. Historically, the child maltreatment is the main social issue in America that resulted about 740 thousand children or youth going to the hospital emergency department. Sanchez demonstrates that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC reported approximately 3.3 million child abuses and neglects. In details, 71 percent of the reports are classified as victims of child neglect, 9 percent victims of sexual abuse, 16 percent of victims of physical abuse, and 7 percent victims of emotional abuse. Accordingly, the impact of the parents’ history of childhood maltreatment reflects on the child’s emotional development and outcomes. DeOliveira, Wolfe, and Bailey emphasize the negative effects in terms of psychological symptoms such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, relationship dysfunction, substance abuse, and health problems. Consequently, these serious outcomes greatly affect the life roles of parents (e.g. mother or father), especially their parenting styles. Despite the negative impacts in the child maltreatment, this research study examines the childhood experiences with the opinions and behaviors in clarifying the mechanisms involved in the strategies the parents are using when they raise children or their adult parenting styles.
With the history of physical abuse, it is associated with disciplinary parenting style and discipline practices. The existence of the harsh and insensitive parenting behavior occurred among high-risk populations with the low-resource mothers or fathers. It is necessary to examine the past exposures to abuse and the way it relates to the current parenting knowledge and behavior. In fact, the preliminary evidence suggests that mothers or fathers with a history of childhood abuses feel less competent as parents, more stressful parenting, and have less effective parenting styles. On the other hand, in terms of physical, behavioral, psychological, and societal outcomes, the impact of child maltreatment (abuses and neglects) is often discussed directly. Alternatively, in reality, it is no longer possible to have the same types of impacts. In the physical outcomes, the damage to a child’s growing brain can have the psychological implications of the cognitive delays or emotional difficulties. The cause of child maltreatment is the parents’ childhood experiences of maltreatment. Statistically, one-third of the variance that predicts child maltreatment is explained for by the history of maternal abuse. Bert, Guner, and Lanzi demonstrate that a mother who experienced some maltreatment or abuse during her lifetime is more likely to engage in negative responses. In addition, the mother possesses an abusive behavior toward the children compared with a mother who never experience any maltreatment or abuse. It entails that the family background or upbringing is a significant factor in the understanding of the development of beliefs about parenting.
The abusive parenting has ways to evaluate the attitudes and behaviors of parents, especially the childhood experiences. The purpose of the evaluation of the parents’ attitudes and behaviors is to deeply understand better the incidence of maltreatment. The individuals with some history of severe maltreatment from their parents are likely to support the utilization of harsh punishments compared to those who have a history of maltreatment. Similarly, DeOliveira, Wolfe, and Bailey present several ways regarding maltreatment affecting the parenting style of the parents. It intends that those mothers with maltreatment histories possibly have less attention to the emotional distinctions of their relationships with their children. Consequently, the lack of emotional attachment affects their capability to promote the emotional development and emotion regulation of their children. It shows that the maltreated children have the hard time to deal with emotional functioning in life. For example, a mother who is sexually assaulted during her childhood affect the parenting behavior due to depression and affects the child, even the child has no idea of the maltreatment and the trauma of the mother. The exposure of a child to parent trauma or the negative parent responses to trauma caused by the problem (e.g. sexual abuse) results in a dramatic effect on the mental health and adjustment of the child. In the same way, Bert, Guner, and Lanzi confirm that the children raised in the abusive families experienced insufficient opportunities to observe a consistent and fair parenting. The social learning shows the model that clarifies the cycle of maltreatment. The cycle suggests that the abusive or neglectful parenting is the outcome of the behaviors passed on from parents to children. As a point of view, an abused child knows that the harsh parenting is a successful technique to get one’s needs and to fulfill it. The obedience and release of frustration translate in a way on how individuals react in the present or future negative relations,especially the negative dealings between the parents and children.
The childhood experience influences the parenting style and practices in parenthood. Sanchez declares that most parents tend to demonstrate a high rate of acceptance of the use of physical punishment in parenting. Specifically, a survey shows that 85 percent of 700 college students believed that parents hold the right to spank their children while 83 percent confirmed that they would do the same practice with their own children. It only implies that the attitudes stem from individuals with childhood experiences. It illustrates that there is an important influence in the formation of physical disciplinary choices of the individuals. Regarding the future parenting, the individuals who experienced an abusive or a harsh disciplinary practice as children are more likely in favor to do the disciplinary practice towards their children. Most of all, if the discipline has been perceived and justified, the future parents rate the harsh discipline they received in childhood is the acceptable way for them. In the same way, the experienced on punitive punishment impacts the individual’s formation of beliefs about the proper and effective ways of disciplining children . The approval of physical mistreatment results in the increased of becoming the same from their experience as a child. In addition, the emotional abuse takes the form of the unrealistic expectation, hostility, and rejection of parents for their children. The emotional maltreatment harms the communication ability of a child, especially a child goal setting behavior. Consequently, children who are maltreated emotionally tend to have a low self-esteem and their experience triggers some emotional and behavioral issues as adults. Negatively, it affects the individuals’ emphatic understanding and cannot connect with the emotions of other people. It demonstrates that a parent’s minor or major physical and emotional punishments significantly affects the empathy level of a child. In general, the abusive parents often experienced abuse or maltreatment during their childhoods. Specifically, 7 percent girls who experienced childhood maltreatment become perpetrators of interpersonal violence while 12 percent maltreated boys during childhood commit violence. The outcomes of maltreatment are a never ending cycle; abused and maltreated individuals during childhood are perpetrators of doing maltreatment towards their own children during adulthood.
In order to break the cycle of maltreatment and to reduce the long-term consequences, it is necessary to continue to develop and implement effective strategies to prevent from happening in the future. The causes of child maltreatment and neglect are a complicated thing; however, it is possible to develop the best prevention initiatives to address the risk factors. The study presented the clear reasons why some parents maltreated their children harshly because they experienced the pain and victimized by the agony of maltreatment in their lifetime. The maltreatment during childhood greatly affects the parenting style of parents at present and future parents. The victims of the maltreatment became the monster themselves in disciplining their own children. It is revealed in the study that those mothers identified as neglectful are totally depressed and unable to take the responsibility to care and protect their children from harm. In addition, those fathers who maltreated their children are products of the maltreatment and neglect during childhood. Generally, the child maltreatment is a common issue in the family, community, and nation. The maltreatment has the physical, emotional, and social effects towards children. The best way to maximize the prevention of the repeated cycle of maltreatment is cooperation; everyone plays a vital role in the implementation of the strategies to reduce maltreatment occurrences. It is important to define the issue, identify the causes and risk factors, design and test the intervention to minimize the risk factors, and let everyone know the effectiveness of the prevention. People should know that the changes in the mental and behavioral development of the individuals during adulthood are clear evidence that happened in their lives during childhood and they are at risk of engaging potential danger in parenting their own children.
Reference
Bert, S. C., Guner, B. M., & Lanzi, R. G. (2009). The Influence of Maternal History of Abuse on
Parenting Knowledge and Behavior. Fam Relat, 58 (2), 176–187. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2008.00545.x.
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2013). Long-Term Consequences of Child Abuse and
Neglect. Washington, DC: Children’s Bureau.
DeOliveira, C. A., Wolfe, V. V., & Bailey, H. N. (2004). The Effect of Childhood Maltreatment
on the Parent-Child Relationship: Project Summary. The University of Western Ontario. Ontario, Canada: Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children.
Kendall-Tackett, K. (2001). The Long Shadow: Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse. Family
Research Laboratory, 1-19.
Odhayani, A. A., Watson, W. J., & Watson, L. (2013). Behavioural consequences of child abuse.
Can Fam Physician, 59, 831-836.
Riser, D. (2009). Parent Trauma History And Parenting Style: Relation To Child Trauma And
Child Psychopathology. Department of Psychology. Blacksburg, Virginia: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Sanchez, M. (2012). History of Emotional and Physical Abuse and Parenting. McNair Scholars
World Health Organization. (2014, December). About Us: World Health Organization. Retrieved
June 1, 2016, from World Health Organization Web Site: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs150/en/
