Parental Risk Factors And Child Maltreatment Social Work Essay

P arntal Risk Factors And electric shaver Maltreatment Social Work EssayIt is staggering to know that thousands of infantren be maltreated in ways that are detrimental to their developmental and psychological growth. Widespread concern about the issue was initially triggered in the sixties to raise awareness of the plight of the battered electric shaver. Research has recognised many dangeriness and nurtureive federal agents commonly associated with boor do by. This essay will dish up with the enate riskiness factors and will take into account the measures that afford resistance against them.Some forms of barbarian ill-treatment are think to enate efficiency due to age, temperament or a personal history with youngster hatred. However, a good deal of exclaim and neglect is linked to sources of mental strain where marital conflicts, domestic violence, and the omit of a st adapted social lucre play signifi send wordt causal roles. Having said that, no single fac tor flowerpot be definitive in determining risk and so they require simultaneous consideration. Despite the causes, family protective factors can reduce contumely rates by promoting positive parent- boor relationships, encouraging extended family support and by building parental resilience.When addressing the question of discussion, knowledge of the risk and protective factors involve in pincer mistreatment can minimise risk. By recognising the complex fundamental interaction of factors that affect susceptibility to maltreatment, professionals can implement programmes specifically designed to protect children at risk. Therefore take ining the causes of maltreatment is crucial to pr change surfaceting the problem.Child maltreatment is a complex and pervasive problem that cuts across all sectors of society, where even defining the term ensues in an inherent complication. During the 1960s, the growing prevalence of treat children bring to the introduction of the term battered child syndrome. This term, seen as a narrowly defined, was broadened so as not to simply infer to natural abuse. In 1997, the World Health Organisation drafted a definition of child maltreatment to encompass both mad and physical injury still also negligent treatment.Risk factors are characteristics where certain behaviours or conditions will likely play a contri neverthelessory role in child mistreatment. Although close to are not direct causes, circumstances in which these factors survive coerce a child highly vulnerable to experiencing maltreatment. However, there are also factors that offer a protective effect which mediate against risk and therefore can increase the social welfare of children and families.When determining risk in familial child maltreatment, it is necessary to examine the role of the parent as he is often the direct perpetrator. Temperament is significant when trying to understand why parents abuse their children. Influence of an individuals psychologica l potentiality on parental process can be found in investigations of mentally pallid adults. Baldwin, Cole and Baldwin (1982) have revealed that families with a parent suffering from a psycho disorder were less interactive and exhibited less warmth than families without. Mental disease can distort a parents judgement to a point where he is no longer competent to make decisions about a childs needs. virile evidence implicating psychological factors in the etiology of child maltreatment derives from reports of intergeneration cycles of abuse (Spinetta and Rigler, 1972 Sherrod, et al., 1986). Parents who were dupes of child mistreatment themselves gives rise to the common perception that being a victim is a determinant for turning into an abuser, yet there is a lack of substantial evidence. Undoubtedly, a history of abuse is a considerable risk factor alone merely child maltreatment is determined by a complex interaction of rick and protective factors factors which differentiate amidst repeaters and non-repeaters.Notwithstanding, parents who were mistreated as children are less likely to become victimisers if they judge internal conflicts related to that history of abuse. To further reduce risks, it is also outstanding if parents have a supportive spouse and good social supports (Hunter and Kisltrom, 1979).However, adults who were spurned as children become emotionally insulated from interpersonal relations and are unable to give affection or form a close alignment with their children (Kempe and Kempe, 1978). This returns attention to the psychiatric make up of the individual abuser and shows how be causal factors are.Competent parenting can also be associated with psychological due date another determinant of maltreatment. Therefore, age serves as a indication of due date and parental aptitude as young mothers may posses less suitable child-rearing attitudes than older mothers. Having said that, age also accounts for poor or wide of the mark pare nting skills as teen-parents will lack the fundamental understanding of a childs needs. Having unrealistic expectations about a childs progress may culminate in impertinent punishments where conclusive studies presented by Straus (1992), and Flanagan et al., (1995), report that teenage mothers tend to exhibit high(prenominal) rates of child abuse.Protective factors aimed at minimising these risks should support parents with their child-rearing skills and teach subtile parenting techniques. By providing parent education classes for new and especially for teen parents can inform them about normal child development and what to expect from their children at specific ages. Yet, this protective factor is not well-suited for all as some parents may be reluctant to attend parent-group meetings.Social conditions create stresses that soften family functioning where specific situations may exacerbate certain emotions of the family members affected. Hostility and foiling can resultantly ag gravate the level of familial maltreatment.Marital relationships serve as a principle support system for parents and so conflicts can beset child maltreatment. Family dissolution can burden an individual and research indicates that children spiritedness with single-parents may be at a higher risk of experiencing abuse and neglect than children with two biological parents (Finkelhor, et al., 1997). The sole burden of family responsibilities linked unitedly with fewer supports can contri neverthelesse to the risk of single-parents mistreating their child.Children in angry homes who feel intimate partner violence are subsequently at risk for being maltreated themselves. Appel and Holden (1998) have found that spousal abuse and child maltreatment co-exist in 30-60% of families. Even if children are not maltreated, they still beget harmful emotional consequences as witnessing violence teaches likewise behaviour or warrants it as appropriate and the child may resort to using violent action later in life. This draws attention back to the victim to wrongdoer hypothesis.In addition to a family system, interpersonal relations, between relatives and friends are inborn when considering risks. Parents who are isolated with few social connections are at higher risk for maltreating their children. Hetherington, Cox and Cox (1977) have found that the support authorized from significant others exert a beneficial impact on parent-child relations. This selective information shows how a stable social network is positively linked with parents sense impression of competence in the care-giving role and evidently can lessen maltreatment rates. But its not merely about having several social connections but the quality of them as-well.It is interesting however that in these cases of support, the mediating role of the parents psychological well-being is pivotal. Marital relations do not regularise parenting directly but instead promote positive attitudes in an individual and thereby influence parenting capabilities (Gamble and Belsky, 1984). Similarly, social relations may serve to enhance the psychological functioning of the parent. Sources of stress and support thus strongly affect parental competence, as although unfavourable relations contribute to the etiology of abuse, the quality of the relationship is influenced by personality correspondingly, they produce bi-directional affects.Parental substance abuse, is also predictive of child maltreatment when daily stresses of raising children prove challenging especially when accompanied with multiple life stressors such as an history of abuse or marital conflicts. Substance misuse interferes with mental functioning and subsequently make parents less available to children, as Forrester (2000) confirms that substance abuse is strongly related to neglect. It may also explain some of the attachment difficulties that can occur, since water-loving development requires parental responsiveness to the needs of a child. Being elate can again negatively influence parental discipline choices and lead to violent tendencies towards a child. Simultaneously, these risk factors can affect a parents capacity to cope effectively but by reaching out to a support system can help build resilience against nerve-wracking circumstances.The interactive play of risk and protective factors provoke familial child maltreatment but it can be prevented regardless. Early identification of causes and outlining the compensatory factors can lead to effective interventions to protect the child involved. Helfer and Kempe (1976) have argued that preventing child abuse entails predicting its occurrence. Therefore, it is clear that professionals need awareness of the several factors that create contexts for maltreatment so that intervention programmes employ a multi-sectoral approach.By acknowledging the factors, intervention strategies can be implemented to minimise the underlying risks encourage reaching out to fam ily and friends, but also to strengthen the protective factors advanced prenatal care and home-visitor networks (Halperin, 1979 Parke Collmer, 1975). Moreover, when enforcing intervention strategies, the treatment of parents should be coordinated to that of children as the potentials for change in parent-child relationships and parental attitudes is maximised (Olds, 1983).However, risk factors have limitations in predicting specific instances of abuse as the determinants in one family may not necessarily result in child maltreatment in another. Furthermore, an individual may not have the emotional resources to cope adequately with the demands of parenting and so intervention must be able to address these implications. Additionally, extensive evaluations need to be conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of short-change and long-term intervention programmes.