At the Alabama Free Will Baptist Children’s Home, we offer a haven of hope and healing to children who have suffered through turbulent domestic situations. Even after living with us in a stable environment, our residents often struggle with the leftover long-term effects of child abuse.
April is National Child Abuse Awareness Month, a time to remind our community of the harrowing worldwide epidemic of childhood abuse, encourage prevention, and educate on recognizing the signs and when (and how) to intervene. Raise awareness with us—read below to learn the physical, behavioral, and psychological long-term effects of child abuse and how to recognize them.
Physical Health
Most assume that the physical long-term effects of child abuse come from only physical abuse. Although it’s right to think that physical abuse is the leading factor, any form of abuse can lead to physical health conditions and health complications, to name just a few:
- Chronic diseases: including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, arthritis
- Malnutrition, obesity, and eating disorders
- Developmental brain injury and disorders (though there’s hopeful improvement with intervention)
- STIs (especially in the case of sexual abuse)
- Functional limitations and abnormal growth
Although the above list may look hopeless for victims of child abuse, they don’t apply to everyone. These risks also pose a critical reason to know the signs of child abuse and its long-term effects: informed medical intervention can prevent, delay, or treat many of them—and the sooner, the better.
Behavioral
The long-term effects of child abuse on a victim’s behavior—even following their rescue from abusive situations—becomes particularly prevalent during adolescence and adulthood. Adult and adolescent victims of childhood abuse generally display maladaptive behaviors and engage in risky and irresponsible actions.
These risky behaviors manifest in early adolescence and continue through adulthood through sexual habits, including carelessness towards contraception and preventing STIs, excessive occurrence, and numerous partners during adulthood. Drug and alcohol abuse is prevalent among victims of child abuse too.
There is substantial evidence of child abuse leading to criminality starting in adolescence as juvenile delinquency and, without proper intervention, continuing into adulthood.
The National Institute of Justice says that physically and emotionally abused children have a higher likelihood of future antisocial behavior and closeness with similarly-behaved individuals; they also report girls responding to their abuse with internalized maladaptive behavior, whereas boys tend to do so externally through aggressive acts and criminality.
When responsible adults intervene as soon as possible, many children can learn to process painful, buried memories of their damaging past, develop healthy coping strategies, and re-align behaviors through effective therapies (e.g. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).
Adult victims of child abuse sometimes have no suspicion or recollection of their maltreatment, which is why everyone needs to know the signs of child abuse, not just in children but also in adults—oftentimes, they need to know they need help to get help.
Psychological
The psychological long-term effects of child abuse are some of the most detrimental and complicated. Physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, and neglectful abuse can cause children to feel negative emotions, guilt, confusion, cognitive difficulties, stress, and unhealthy attachment styles.
Cognition is one crucial function that is highly susceptible to damage from abuse during childhood development, as the brain is especially vulnerable. Child abuse victims frequently struggle to focus, listen, and comprehend in school. They can also be disadvantaged when the brain attempts to employ essential executive functions like working memory, inhibition for self-control, and cognitive shifting (adaptation to changing environments and information).
Children and adult victims fail to recognize the effects abuse had on them during their childhood because they have little to no memory of it: Their brains shut out the trauma to protect them, which is yet another reason to make an effort to recognize signs of child abuse. Specific therapies can help these victims remember what happened to them so they can recover.
Other psychological signs of child abuse include post-traumatic stress causing severe panic, anxiety, depression, and insecure attachment in familial, social, professional, and romantic relationships.
Awareness of the Long-Term Effects of Child Abuse
Even child abuse victims who remember every point of their maltreatment fear speaking up to avoid punishment or because they feel guilty about exposing the adult abuser. Almost all victims of child abuse know the person who attacked them.
No one wants to believe someone they trust would abuse their child behind their back—especially not a family member, a babysitter, or a close friend—but it still happens when parents aren’t looking, which is yet another reason to spread awareness to everyone.
Although April is National Child Abuse Awareness Month, that does not mean April is the only time our nation should talk about the long-term effects of child abuse. Your awareness of the signs and actions to intervene may be the only hope to save the lives of child and adult victims in your life.
There are many ways to spread awareness of child abuse and ways to help this April (and the months and years beyond). You can begin by helping to spread the word about the signs of child abuse and its cascade of negative effects. You can also donate directly to support child abuse outreach and intervention programs, including those at the Alabama Free Will Baptist Children’s Home.