Sexual, Physical and Emotional Abuse

¶ … Sexual, Physical and Emotional Abuse of Children in the Adolescent Years

"A very disturbing secret is about to be exposed in downtown Sacramento. Make that several secrets. Secrets involving emotion, physical and sexual abuse. But these secrets are true stories, and in their telling, the organizers hope to prevent other children from being harmed," reports a Sacramento blog (Lofing). The abuse of children plagues modern day society- news of it is splashed across newspapers, in the pages of magazines and streamed across our television. As society attempts to prevent and shed light on the horrific nature of child abuse and drawn attention to this problem, scholars have been examining the aftermath of child abuse on an individual; but, there is always more that could be understood about the effects of child abuse- as the cliche says, "the more you know, the better."

To that end, I would like to explore the issue of child abuse more in depth by exploring the effects of child abuse on adolescent's behaviors and emotions. How does abuse, physical, sexual and emotional, affect adolescents academically? Are these students more or less prone to succeeding in their academic environments or being held back? How does the sexual, physical and emotional abuse affect adolescents in social situations? Are these individuals more or less likely to be extroverted or introverted, the so-called "popular" boy or girl or the pariah? How easily do they make friends? The most important facet of the previous questions to explore is how the abuse has triggered certain changes or implications, if any, during their adolescent years.

Currently, the topic of child abuse has had a plethora of research conducted around it; but, the several research studies are concerned with the long-term effects of child abuse instead of the immediate years following the abuse, the adolescent years; thus, with the exploration of my research questions I hope to explore the years between childhood and the onset of adulthood. An article in the journal for Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, by David Finkelhor at the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, is an example of research literature that captures the long-term effects of child sexual abuse but fails to acknowledge the immediate impact of the sexual abuse during their adolescent years.

The structure of my exploration to my research questions would first begin with background of the topic including definitions, statistics and examples that would provide a foundation to the conclusions I would eventually draw from the myriad of sources. One of my main sources would be a study that attempted to determine if physical abuse to a child predicted adolescent physiological and behavioral problems; the results were published in the Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Among other sources include books, journal articles as well newspaper and magazine articles; together, these sources would contribute to a web of facts and studies that would help me construct logical answers to the research questions I am attempting to answer.

Works Cited (to above proposal)

Lofing, Niesha. "New exhibit on K. Street aims to prevent child abuse." The Sacramento Bee. 31 March 2011. 1 April 2011. < http://blogs.sacbee.com/ticket/archives/2011/03/new-exhibit-on.html>

Annotated Bibliography

Goldman, J., M.K. Salus, and K.Y. Kennedy. United States. Child Welfare Information. Washington DC, 2003. Web. 1 Apr 2011. .

This government publication provides a great deal of background information on child abuse in the United States currently. It provides basic information on types of maltreatment/abuse and the characteristics of victims as well are more complex information that has been quantified like regarding trends of reported victimization from 1990-2000. This information that this government document has provided will be important in setting up the current state of affairs of child abuse in the United States and will help establish a foundation for the research questions to be answered.

Hibbard, Roberta a., Gary M. Ingersoll, and Donald P. Orr. "Behavioral Risk, Emotional Risk and Child Abuse Among Adolescents in a Nonclinical Setting." Pediatrics: Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics 86.6 (1990): 896-901. Web. 1 Apr 2011. .