Child Abuse: Long-Term Paper

Sexual, Physical and Verbal abuse have devastating long-term effects on children and their development. Child abuse causes higher rates of depression, an increase in the likelihood of developing an addiction as well as negative socioeconomic consequences later in life. When a child has been abused, they tend to begin forming negative thought patterns, which, after many years will develop into mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. In addition to mental health problems, abuse survivors are at a higher risk than non-victims to develop addictions, due to chemical changes in the brain. Lastly, survivors have a lower socioeconomic standing, as the abused children have not had the support and encouragement of their parents.

When a child …show more content…
Moreover, many studies have found that, “Self-reported physical abuse in childhood increased the likelihood of reporting more diagnosed illnesses, physical symptoms, anxiety, anger and depression nearly 40 years after the abuse took place” (Springer, Sheridan, Kuo & Carnes, 2007, 27) This means that physical abuse is another factor that can cause negative thinking patterns and subsequently, mental health issues. Continuous victimization is what causes the negative thought pattern …show more content…
These children are more likely to have a lower socioeconomic status when they are older because, “...abuse and neglect are more common in families of lower socioeconomic status, so that maltreatment may exacerbate differences in the prospects of rich and poor children.” (Currie & Widom, 2010, 27) An abused child has been raised in a home environment where there is little support or encouragement to continue with further education or to participate in extracurricular learning activities. Without a proper support system, the abused child has a lower chance of being successful academically than a non-victim child, “Results indicate that adults with documented histories of childhood abuse and/or neglect have lower levels of education, employment, earnings, and fewer assets as adults, compared to matched control children” (Currie & Widom, 2010, 1) Not only do abused children have lower education than non-victim children, but they also have more difficulty finding employment, “Overall, adults who had experienced maltreatment were at twice the risk as non-victims to be unemployed.” (Zielinski, 2009, 29) Furthermore, child abuse survivors have difficulty keeping and finding employment as a majority of them must struggle with addictions, mental illness and the related trauma of having experienced severe abuse at such a young