Sociology

Recent estimates indicate that child physical abuse and neglect are more common than had been thought. They have emerged to be important health problems with numerous researches being carried out on the phenomenon. The majority of risk factors for child abuse and neglect are not subject to change in the short run. Even though child abuse and neglect take place at all socio-economic level, it has been highly linked with poverty and psychosocial stress. There is a strong correlation between child maltreatment with minimal parental education, single parenting, underemployment, poor housing, and reliance on welfare (Sadock, Kaplan  Sadock, 2007). Child abuse and neglect appear to occur in families with many problems such as those characterized by social isolation, domestic violence, social isolation and substance abuse. Mental retardation, immaturity and physical handicap may increase the probability of maltreatment (Whitaker, 2007). The risk of child abuse has also been found to increase in families with many children.

Children who are abused often exude various behavioral, emotional and somatic reactions. In many instances, radiological evaluation and physical examination often suggest evidence of repeated suspicious injuries (Rebekah, Johanna  Drew, 2005). Abused children in numerous occasions express behaviors that ought to arouse a health professionals suspicions. They may express an unusual fearfulness, docility, distrustfulness and may also be guarded. They are also likely to express aggression and disruptiveness. They may be very cautious of physical contact and express no expectation of being comforted by adults.

There are certain features of child maltreatment that make research into its etiology complicated. Such features include the deviant nature of the behavior, its prevalence, the presence of multiple factors within the context of child maltreatment, the ever changing historical and political definitions of the behavior and the disturbing and complicated nature of the behavior which demands for a reconsideration of the conventional wisdom concerning parenting and human nature (Rebekah, Johanna  Drew, 2005). One of the major problems encountered in reviewing the etiology of child maltreatment is the disparity in theoretical concepts and operational definition of child maltreatment. Even though there is a tendency to distinguish various kinds of maltreatment, there is evidence to suggest the unavailability of these distinctions (Dubowitz  Bennett, 2009).
Generally, there are some factors that are more closely related with particular forms of child abuse and neglect. Differences and similarities in the etiologies of emotional abuse, physical punishment, physical abuse, and neglect are not well integrated in scientific literature. In most cases, the etiologies and outcome related with multiple kinds of maltreatment are not differentiated in research. There are rare comparative studies concerning the origin and correlates of the various kinds of abuse.

Many kinds of maltreatment form part of a pattern of maladaptive behavior emerging over time even though evidence from research is not clear. There is no consensus concerning the question of whether child maltreatment is a succession of behaviors or a set of distinct behavioral problems with unique etiologies (Dubowitz  Bennett, 2009). Because of the limited number of studies on multiple forms of maltreatment and since the tendency among researchers is to study one type of maltreatment, such lack of consensus may be a consequence of the organization of the research projects. The current tendency is to focus more attention on factors such as chronicity and severity of neglect and abuse and the co-occurrence of multiple kinds of maltreatment. The majority of etiological models do not possess a vocabulary for comprehending the temporary organization of child maltreatment neither do they demonstrate the potential link between maladjustments and the perpetrators abusive behavior. The existing models also fail to resolve uncertainties concerning the sequence that may exist between physical abuse and physical punishment or between inadequate care and parental neglect (Dubowitz  Bennett, 2009). The result is that the present knowledge is not exhaustive of the significant causes and mechanisms that influence risk factors in the etiology of child maltreatment.

Etiological models of child maltreatment has slowly evolved from the solitary cause-effect models to approaches that are more sophisticated which take into consideration multiple mechanisms and interactive impacts among factors that lead to child maltreatment. Having identified the limitations that characterize a focus on the parent alone or on the characteristics of the child alone, there is more emphasis today on the interactions among parent, child and environmental factors. This recognition of the role played by situational factors has resulted in the establishment of multi-causal interactive models that stress on the importance of socio-cultural context of child maltreatment. For instance, the transitional model conceives of child maltreatment as an escalating process and as one end of the sequence of maladaptive parenting (Okun, Parker  Levondosky, 2007). Even though the simple models identify some key variables related with child maltreatment, they fail to establish a strong etiology of child maltreatment neither are they particular on the causal relationships or the continuum of the related variables. There is also conflicting results across these studies with limited predictive strength of single variables. Models based on social interaction stress on the value of looking at child maltreatment within the context of family, community and society instead of individual stressors or individual parental psychopathology (Kellogg, 2007).

Emerging empirical evidence invoking interaction models indicate that as much as studies of abusive and non-abusive parents have not found any important significant disparity with regard to personality aspects, studies of the interactions of abusive and non-abusive family processes have suggested important differences including unrealistic expectations of their children, the tendency to conceive the behavior of their own children as extremely stressful, and their conception of themselves as incompetent in their parenting roles (Guterman  Lee, 2005).

Early studies of the etiology of child maltreatment held that a unique psychiatric syndrome would be discovered to characterize parents who maltreat children. Some minimum percentage of parents who maltreat children could be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder even though the majority of people were identified as disturbed of anxious individuals who seldom expressed extreme psychopathology (Whitaker, 2007). There is no support for significant degrees of mental disturbance of consistent profile of parental psychopathology. However, there are particular types of psychiatric disorders that may play significant roles in determining results for maltreated child.

Some studies suggest a set of parental personality attributes related with child maltreatment. These attributes include low self-esteem, poor impulse control, anti-social behavior, negative affectivity, and external locus of control (Barlow, Johnston, Kendrick, Polnay  Stewart-Brown, 2006). A triad of highly correlating personality characteristics that depression, anti-social behavior and anxiety are central to these attributes.

These aspects are related with social isolation, disrupted social relations, lack of utilization of social support, and inability to cope with stress. The possibilities of encountering stressful life experiences are increased by these attitudes and attributes. They further inhibit the establishment of supportive relationships with friends, families, and spouse which can help the affected individual from the impacts of stress.