5 Reasons Why Parents Abuse Their Children

according to American Society for the positive care of children child abuse reports in 2020 involved 7.1 million children 90.6% of these victims were maltreated by one or both parents it is estimated that 1,750 children died from abuse and neglect all of these children and many more whose struggles never got reported were betrayed by their family by someone they knew loved and trusted it's a truly scary and heartbreaking reality and it makes us wonder why why would a parent hurt an innocent child the same child they brought to life during Decades of research psychologists and social workers identified different risk factors of child maltreatment specific characteristics of a parent that increase the likelihood of a child being abused understanding why abuse happens can help our society fight against it with that said here are five first factors of child abuse number one poverty according to a study published in the Journal of pediatric surgery millions of us residents lost their jobs in May 2020 during the Corona virus outbreak that same year 47 Children's Hospitals reported over 20,000 physical child abuse cases this illustrates the wellestablished role job loss and poverty have in child abuse according to National Center for injury prevention and control division of violence prevention rates of child abuse and neglect are five times higher for children and families with low socioeconomic status researchers believe that stress associated with poverty can affect parents' abilities to meet their children's needs living in harsh conditions and struggling to provide the day-to-day Necessities for their children can make parents anxious depressed fearful and overwhelmed these factors combined may result in inconsistent discipline failure to respond to a child's emotional needs or failure to prevent or address a potential risk to a child's safety what do you think how could social policies help prevent poverty to minimize the risk of child abuse number two skills even in 1983 parenting was described as the Last Stand of the amateur the one occupation that doesn't require any training or educational qualifications and even today Society still assumes that parenting skills are natural and instinctive but what happens when those instincts to protect and support children fail it may leave children exposed to the risk of Mal treatment 2018 research states that the lack of knowledge skills and competence necessary for the care of children are among the most common factors contributing to child abuse however some researchers consider this Factor to be preventable as proposed by the World Health Organization numerous programs have been developed to improve parenting skills and prevent child abuse those programs focus on parenting skills parent psychological health and parent child conflicts which parenting skills do you think parents should learn before having their children number three attitudes a 2020 study suggests another important risk factor for child abuse is Parental attitudes and beliefs and made an overview of some of these attitudes parents that are more likely to abuse their children have unrealistic expectations about child development in other words they might see children as more mature than they actually are attitudes that parents have about corporal punishment have also been related to child abuse higher belief in the value of Corporal discipline can make parents more likely to use coercive discipline methods research published in the journal child abuse and neglect found increased risk for children whose parents lacked knowledge of appropriate disciplinary strategies and expected high compliance and obedience some recent studies show that these beliefs can impact a parent behavior on an unconscious level that's why sometimes parents May abuse their children without even realizing it what do you think which attitudes could lead parents to abuse their children knowingly or not number four intergenerational transmission do you think that abusers raise AB abusers in most cases sufferers of abuse grow up determined never to make mistakes their parents made but sometimes they may end up continuing the cycle of abuse with their children this is called intergenerational transmission of child Mal treatment a 2018 research study examined parents who were physically maltreated as children a result showed that physical abuse history increased the risk of abusing and neglecting their own children number five person personality parents who suffer from untreated personality disorders can show abusive Behavior a 2019 study found that parents with borderline personality disorder suffer from increased parenting stress and because of that may act in a way that prevents the formation of a healthy parent child relationship but a study published in the journal advances in mental health shows that if they seek professional help parents with Bine personality disorder can still overcome these challenges and learn better parenting skills child abuse is an alarmingly common form of abuse but remember it's never about the child it never happens because a child is bad it's a result of a parent who forgot to or couldn't take care of themselves first a flawed person bringing their problems onto helpless children please check out the resources below if you worry a child you know might be in danger or if you're a child living in an abusive family if you were abused as a child and still battle the side effects please reach out to a mental health professional to get the help you deserve please share this video with others who might benefit the references used are listed in the description below until next time take care