Child abuse is a complex phenomenon with multiple causes. Understanding the causes of abuse is crucial to addressing the problem of child abuse. Parents who physically abuse their spouses are more likely than others to physically abuse their children (Garbarino, & Garbarino, 1994). Many physically abusive parents and caregivers insist that their actions are simply forms of discipline—ways to make children learn to behave. But there is a big difference between using physical punishment to discipline and physical abuse.
Positive parenting, re-establishing trust, and being attuned to children’s emotions can play a big role in diminishing the harmful effects of this trauma. The parent-child relationship must be focused on in order to help a child come through this disturbance. The Impact of Domestic Violence on Preschoolers It is a sad fact that 30-43% of children in the United States have witnessed some form of physical violence between their parents. This violence can have a profound effect on preschoolers development cognitively and emotionally. Studies suggest that younger children may be more vulnerable to the effects of witnessing domestic violence than older children (Johnson and Lieberman, 2007) so it is very disturbing to recognize that young children are more likely to witness incidents of violence than older children (Ybarra, Wilkens, & Lieberman, 2007).
This is more harmful to the child’s wellbeing on many different levels. Children experience the same feelings associated with divorce that adults do, they feel a loss and grief for the parent that is no longer there on a daily basis. The attachment that they had to the parent prior to the divorce has been forever changed. Some research shows that the quality of relationship between parent and child deteriorates and that the effects last until adulthood (Bouchard & Doucet, 2011). More recently laws have begun to change due to the research that shows children benefit from having both parents involved in their parenting.
Many research studies have shown that, on average, children of divorce have more behavior problems than children growing up in two-parent families. But the question for social scientists is whether the problems seen in the children of divorced parents were caused by the divorce, or whether something else caused BOTH the divorce and the children's problems. Researchers wonder, in particular, whether some couples have personal characteristics and/or parenting patterns that increase the chance that their children will have behavior problems AND ALSO increase the chance that the couple will be unable to resolve marital issues. If this "something else" causes both divorce and behavior problems, then it is likely that that children would still have had problems even if their parents had somehow managed to remain married. How do we look for that "something else"?
Margaret E. Sangster has pointed out all the possible problems that are usually faced by the children of divorce parents. According to her children face problem generally during his or her school life and more likely to have legal problems. As everyone knows that, children or even adult when distress among themselves affects child’s mind or adult, so he or she see all those conflicts among their own parents ,so they are also merely looking for
Overall, being taken out of a stressful household is an easier transition that being a yanked out of a peaceful one. The University of New Hampshire(extension.unh.edu.family/documents.divorce.pdf) found that age and gender play a large role in how each child reacts to having divorced parents. When an infant's parents get divorced it doesn't understand what is going on but feels the low energy level of its parents. The baby will most likely lose its appetite and spit up more. Preschool children often believe that they caused the divorce.
In many divorce cases children are involved. Almost all divorcing parents try to keep the children out of it, but it is nearly impossible to avoid involving the children. Divorce greatly increases many types of bad effects on the children involved in the divorce, including psychological problems, juvenile delinquency, suicide, undereducation, and teenage pregnancies. Problems arise from conflict during and after divorce more than from conflict during the marriage. There is an increased incidence of emotional and physical damage even if the divorce is low-conflict.
Why should people know their child custody laws? First, we need our children to be protected. Second, if we do not know the laws and go through a custody battle, you have a chance to lose your children, even if it is not the best decision for the children. Going through a divorce is not easy in itself, but the children are the ones that suffer the most. There is an astonishing 14.2 percent divorce rate in Nevada (Fiegerman, 2010) one of the highest in the country.
Divorce is tragic on many levels and all too often the impact on children is more then just the shock of their parents living in two different places. Other then “deal breakers” which could have physical or psychological damage to a child, society needs to take another look at why they are getting
In this case, child still can have good understanding of various situations and be able to grow with the right vision of the family. The situation is different and more complicated in the families that have gone through the challenges of divorce. Child, whose parents got divorced, goes through significant emotional shock and re-evaluation of the core values and moral principles. In the majority of cases, divorce causes a lot of negative emotions between parents that cannot be hidden from a child and, consequently, it goes deeply into the mind and mentality of a child. Negative aspects and attributes of divorce, such as discussions on the parental control, cruel scenes between parents and negligent attitude towards the child, as proven by the empirical research data, influence future behavioral patterns of this child and create dysfunctional attitude and relationships in his or her own family.