Maltreatment On Education

Providing children with a safe and nurturing environment where they are able to develop their cognitive and emotional skills to thrive and become healthy, productive adults is an essential factor associated with optimal child well-being. As such, the development of children can become impaired if they are subjected to maltreatment. In this paper maltreatment is defined as acts by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm or threat to a child’s health and development. Through the review of three research papers I hope to elucidate the implication of maltreatment on the cognitive and intellectual development of children as measured through academic achievement, school engagement and classroom behavior. I would also like to consider potential …show more content…
I targeted the focus on the effect of maltreatment on education because education is a stock of human capital that is available throughout the course of life and exhibits significant associations with various measures of health. This idea is affirmed by David Baker in his paper “The Education Effect on Population Health: A Reassessment” which states that “education has an enduring, consistent and growing effect on health” and computes that individuals with no education or lower secondary schooling have 46 percent higher probability of mortality than those with high school or higher education (Baker, Leon, Greenway, Collins & Movit, 2011). Education attainment and related performance also has a hand in determining adult social status, access to material resources, and the generation of a positive self-image and future orientation. Furthermore, formal schooling enhances cognitive skills as learning to read, write and think in numbers are results of abstract cognitive experiences that transform an individual's decision making abilities and risk assessment (Baker et al., 2011). As such evaluating the role of maltreatment on education allows us to consider the effects of maltreatment on the development of cognitive skills in children. In …show more content…
The authors also mention that children developing in an unstable environments generally have a heightened sensitivity to threats that may lead to disruptive behavior which increases interruptions to classroom learning. The emotional and behavioral impacts of maltreatment also has been shown to result in cognitive impairments such as greater concentration difficulties, poorer motivation and higher impulsivity and impaired short-term