Journal of Sexual Behaviour.
As parenting is increasingly challenging nowadays, it is vital for the children who will form our future society to be taken care of in a healthy means possible. The children’s environment is brought up in, and the method used contributes to their mental health and individual development process. The family environment is supposed to be the safest but due to disciplinary issues, parents and guardians’ may knowingly or unknowingly abuse, exploit and harm their children hence negatively affecting their mental, physical and social development. (Berber Çelik, Ç., & Odacı, H. (2020). Does child abuse have an impact on self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and stress conditions of individuals?. International journal of social psychiatry, 66(2), 171-178.)
Regardless of acknowledgment, child abuse has psychological effects on Childs health, and it is still wild spread in most developing countries and the established ones. It has a substantial negative influence on the target group. This study seeks to demonstrate how it affects Childs self-esteem. ( Xiang, Y., Wang, W., & Guan, F. (2018). The relationship between child maltreatment and dispositional envy and the mediating effect of self-esteem and social support in young adults. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1054.)
Self-esteem consists of individual principles and messages which replicate how one values themselves. This can either be low or high subject on the type of principles and messages. Once a child has been abused, they foster an intellect of low self-worth, whereby these messages come from the adults who used them. They subsequently integrate some of the negative thoughts into their belief system. (
Self-esteem is a central concern for any individual abused as a child. Any attempt to discontinue the abuse was most likely met with little or no success, which occasioned feelings of helplessness, shame, incompetence, and ineffectiveness. This makes it possible for the children to carry such feelings into their adult life, which leads to individuals’ low self-esteem. ( Debowska, A., & Boduszek, D. (2017). Child abuse and neglect profiles and their psychosocial consequences in a large sample of incarcerated males. Child Abuse & Neglect, 65, 266-277.)
One of the childhood abuse I interviewed had this response ‘I was sexually abused by my mother and then by my parents. I had no one to talk to except for my bears. I am now 44 and sometimes I think of committing suicide. I was betrayed, no one can help me. I think by being close to people I treasure; I will make them dirty. Only Hell wants me’ This shows the victim carried these feelings to their adult life, leading to self-low esteem.
( Greger, H. K., Myhre, A. K., Klöckner, C. A., & Jozefiak, T. (2017). Childhood maltreatment, psychopathology, and well-being: The mediator role of global self-esteem, attachment difficulties, and substance use. Child abuse & neglect, 70, 122-133.)
Blaming oneself for abuse is common despite being the victim. It is a demonstration of low self-esteem. This happens because the abuser makes us believe it was our fault. Name-calling and the insults give us an overall impression of low self-esteem. A college student who learned about my study on this topic sent me an email for advice that shows the subject’s effects on child abuse. It has given me have low confidence for most of my life, especially at school, I am described as. Quiet or shy. It is because i have a bad childIood but I am kind of hiding it.’
Adopting these messages makes us often play in our minds over and over again. This results in fortifying these negative feelings, which may lead to depression and damaging behaviours which only lower our self-esteem further.( Mohamed Jamal, U. N., & Esa, A. (2017). Quiet abuse affects the development of children’s emotions. Educational Technology, 47793-47794.)
A Doctor i met in my study had this to comment ‘I am a 55yr old male and still remember the belittling, the being called stupid, bloody idiot and face pulling and annoyance my father directed towards me as a young teenager. He made me feel useless and worthless every day in some way. He would talk with my sister about me as if I wasn’t in the same room and describe me as an idiot to her.
I still feel very bitter towards my father even writing this I have an inner feeling of hatred towards him and he has been dead for the past 17yrs. I know I need to move on but it’s holding me back like a big ball and chain.’
Although time may give the victims an opportunity to return to normal life, the abuse appears to contain long lasting effects. The victims sometimes continue to deal with the same family, individuals and relationships. These generates different coping techniques for the victims to pre-exist with them which maybe negative or positive.( Had, J. S. O. W. Journal of Sexual Behaviour.)
I will discuss the negative coping mechanism adopted by the victims.
Active behavioural avoidance is a strategy which may involve not leaving ones’ residence, shunning victim services workers and taking time off work. This may help the victims have time to heal and rebuild their lives.
Denial and self-deception aids the victims erase the memories temporarily thus helping them manage any overwhelming emotions. This helps minimise internal distress.( Dishon-Brown, A., Golder, S., Renn, T., Winham, K., Higgins, G. E., & Logan, T. K. (2017). Childhood victimization, attachment, coping, and substance use among victimized women on probation and parole. Violence and victims, 32(3), 431-451.)
Substance misuse may be adopted which involves abuse of alcohol and drugs or overuse of prescription medication. With this strategy they may experience greater challenges since it interferes with decision making ability.
Deliberate self-harm entails the victim causing harm to themselves knowingly. This is common when experiencing depression or pains and aids in relieving the pressure.
Finding from this study validates that there is a substantial relationship between the childhood abuse and self-esteem. It is revealed that self-esteem levels fall with increased childhood abuse. There is need for mediation targeting lowering of childhood abuse to reduce prevalence of low self-esteem and agony among childhood abuse victims.
References
Berber Çelik, Ç., & Odacı, H. (2020). Does child abuse have an impact on self-esteem, depression, anxiety and stress conditions of individuals?. International journal of social psychiatry, 66(2), 171-178.
Ju, S., & Lee, Y. (2018). Developmental trajectories and longitudinal mediation effects of self-esteem, peer attachment, child maltreatment and depression on early adolescents. Child abuse & neglect, 76, 353-363.
Debowska, A., & Boduszek, D. (2017). Child abuse and neglect profiles and their psychosocial consequences in a large sample of incarcerated males. Child Abuse & Neglect, 65, 266-277.
Xiang, Y., Wang, W., & Guan, F. (2018). The relationship between child maltreatment and dispositional envy and the mediating effect of self-esteem and social support in young adults. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1054.
Greger, H. K., Myhre, A. K., Klöckner, C. A., & Jozefiak, T. (2017). Childhood maltreatment, psychopathology and well-being: The mediator role of global self-esteem, attachment difficulties and substance use. Child abuse & neglect, 70, 122-133.
Mohamed Jamal, U. N., & Esa, A. (2017). Quiet abuse affects the development of children’s emotions. Educational Technology, 47793-47794. Dishon-Brown, A., Golder, S., Renn, T., Winham, K., Higgins, G. E., & Logan, T. K. (2017). Childhood victimization, attachment, coping, and substance use among victimized women on probation and parole. Violence and victims, 32(3), 431-451.
Had, J. S. O. W. Journal of Sexual Behaviour.
Dishon-Brown, A., Golder, S., Renn, T., Winham, K., Higgins, G. E., & Logan, T. K. (2017). Childhood victimization, attachment, coping, and substance use among victimized women on probation and parole. Violence and victims, 32(3), 431-451.