Effects of Maltreatment of Childs Memory
Although scientific studies about maltreatment and memory are still in its early wake, many scholars have found its importance. Child maltreatment resulted into effects such as short-term brain damage, which significantly distorted a childs memory, causing the subject to experience false memories after laboratory examinations. However, it is not exclusive in its attempt to provide empirical reviews regarding false memories as this may constitute broader scope of the topic.
Before going through a review of the five scholarly studies, it is imperative to define major variables such as maltreatment, memory, stress, trauma, and socio-emotional factors relating to the subject of the studies.
According to Goodman et al (2010), maltreatment is an act of physical abuse, sexual abuse, andor psychological abuse that constitutes profound failures of care giving and in effect, results to psychological and emotional damage. Definitions of maltreatment vary according to ones legal state interpretations or in ones cultural atmosphere. One certain effect of maltreatment, according to Goodman et al (2010) is that the child is being deprived of essential psychological and emotional factors for normal adaptation of personal development. They also argued that children, who have suffered from this maltreatment, are more likely to carry the struggling effects throughout their life. This hypothesis will be justified based on results of investigations conducted for diverse subjects.
Memory in most states is defined as the psychological accounts of experiences wherein a person is able to recount when a similar event or circumstance triggers the subconscious to relive the experience, thus, producing the same emotional distress as it happened in the first time of their experience. In the case of maltreated children, their ability to recount the actual events concerning stressful life experiences is very high especially if the event has happened in the early stages of their childhood. This assumption will be justified through a series of empirical results provided by the studies concerned.
Stress is developed when a subject is involuntarily subjected to events which solicit emotions that are unhealthy for the victim and psychological pressure becomes prevalent when they feel obligated to recount events from the maltreatment to give that information, for example in laboratory examinations. Associated stresses are included when a victimized child is faced with previous triggering behaviors and identifying characteristics in certain people, places or objects. Post traumatic stress can still be experienced even by adult children of maltreatment, both physical and emotional abuse. However, their ability to recount these events is dependent on the severity of the maltreatment or their capacity to undergo normal process of emotional and psychological healing as an adult.
The Nature of Child Maltreatment and its Consequences
In the primitive times, punishments are carried out by adults, particularly parents to correct behaviors of children. Some forms of punishment include beating, slapping, pinching, and other physical forms. These methods may positively constitute to a specific level of trauma for children especially if reasons are not very well explained. The severe application of punishments may lead to child abuse. However, the concept of child abuse is far different from child maltreatment primarily because disciplined methods differentiate in cultures and on a much broader scope then actual child abuse that requires rigorous process of getting into the causes and effects.
The most common forms of child maltreatment are physical, emotional neglect and sexual abuse. Child neglect is considered the most frequent act of maltreatment, according to the Childrens Bureau (2009). Sexual abuse, is the most identified forms of maltreatment and receives greater amount of attention from researchers and scholars for the matter of identifying its effects on the childs memory. Based on a report provided by Goodman et al (2010), the topic of sexual abuse on children has been the focus of controversy primarily because of two reasons the notion of repressed memory and the argument that most sexual abuse situations take place in daycare settings. Findings on sexual abuse also serve as major evidences in legal cases, forensic interview practices, and even in the formulation of local and national policies for children. What fueled the controversies in discussing child maltreatment is the intervention of psychologists and their assumption that sexual abuse has significant effects on the childs memory. Although it may be possible that sexual abuse may not cast effects on the victims memory, one thing is certain, and that is, in all cases, there are justified negative and positive outcome of the experience depending on the victims ability to incorporate self-healing.
In an empirical study conducted by Goodman et al (2001), it was reported that at least five out of 10 children experienced sexual assaults before their 18th birthday. More of these cases were left unreported, or if taken court, the basis of its validity is on the childs statements and most difficult to dicipher.
In examining the consequences of maltreatment on children, a rich body of research findings concludes that there are crucial effects on the victims cognitive, socio-emotional, and neuropsychological aspects. In other findings cited by Goodman et al (2010), there were cases of maltreatment wherein the victims were suffering from delayed communication. Such delays are in forms of cognitive processes, language, and intelligence. It was assessed that these children who become victims of maltreatment are one to two years behind as compared to other children who have the similar demographic features. Given the assumption of delays (because not all cases of child maltreatment constitutes delays and this aspect is still under debate), one of the highly observable effects is the childs inability to perform cognitive tasks in adherence with factors such as gender and age. Another implication of child maltreatment is the limited language abilities executed by the victims, especially in memory-inducing interviews. With these circumstances, the child will most likely exhibit stutters and reduction of comprehension when the child is prompted with questions pertaining to past events. These delays can be present regardless of the amount of information suggested to be remembered by the child. However, it is emphasized that memory deficits are not always evident in children who became victims of maltreatment because at some point of the studies, there were reported advantages regarding the recall of past experiences (Goodman et al, 2010) that helped victims sort out their memories.
In terms of the socio-emotional aspect, child maltreatment is believed to have adverse effects on the regulation of emotions, whether extrinsic or intrinsic. This may involve factors such as attention processes, interpretations, and copying of behaviors. According to Goodman et al (2010), children who experienced maltreatment exhibited poor emotional regulations as compared to non-maltreated children. That is, expressed in their negative reactions to some events. Maltreated children are also more likely to respond to positive and more appropriate emotion regulation. It is generalized that both physically and emotionally abused children, as well as those who are neglected are more likely to develop difficulty in regulating their emotions.
Maltreatment also constitutes increased attentiveness to events suggesting emotional information. For example, Goodman et al (2010) cited empirical findings that maltreated children easily identifies negative emotions such as anger or hatred and they can easily label such emotions as negative as compared to their ability to recognize positive ones. This may be due to the accumulated negative emotions that the victims had in the course of the maltreatment process. Moreover, it was found out that maltreated children have difficulty in disengaging themselves to negative stimuli, and as a result, such stimuli develops into full-blown emotional reactions. These circumstances are all in correlation to the development of stress and trauma among adult children, who were maltreated during their childhood years. As a result, adults exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD). This suggests that adults are more likely to be more attentive to information on events which induce stress or trauma. An impacting effect, is that adults with PSTD can prolong their response to negative stimuli and later on develop better memory for such kind of information.
Another common, but major effect of child maltreatment and definitely the most problematic in terms of sociological capacity, is their perception on social relationships and their tendencies to lose trust or the lacking of trust for other people. Since maltreatment during childhood shows that there is some extent of care giving, yet, unresponsiveness. Victims usually build up the belief that adults (or other people) tend to become unresponsive of their need and eventually develop negative feelings against them. Difficulties in relationships are evident from the adolescent years to the young, adulthood stage but it is believed that such circumstance is negated given some time.
In legal cases, one of the interesting consequences of child maltreatment is the perception of the victim that other people would normally be unsupportive of their needs or their claims regarding the incident. This is most evident when victims are asked vital information regarding their traumatic event(s). Forms of Insecurity surface most when asked to disclose pertinent information because of their inner belief that they cannot generate support from other people. The inner child is unwilling to trust. To counter this, interviewers or forensic professionals usually extend reassurance in protection and in support to the victim, in order, for the victim to have a participative role in the process of resolving cases. Here, the victim is experiencing repressed emotion due to their inability to trust other people. Hence, social dissociation is most likely to be experienced by victims of child maltreatment.
Memory and Child Maltreatment
PSTDs and other mental health problems have some crucial effects to the victims memory. Some of the symptoms include emotional numbing and intrusive memories called flashbacks. The intensity of the memory can be as severe as the first encounter of their traumatic experience. It is also possible that when flashbacks occur, the victim may not be able to feel any kind of emotion (emotional numbing), but the negative effect may recur at any given time. This is in direct correlation with a childs dissociation to the traumatic events and critical because the victim may find it hard to disengage himself to the situations which trigger pain, stress, and trauma.
This aspect of PTSD research on child maltreatment is still new however, there are a number of efforts to determine the association of memory and maltreatment on the child. For example, one methodology to assess this is the eyewitness memory recall interview wherein the childs memory is subjected to documentation prior to his past experiences. In empirical findings cited by Goodman et al (2010), it was found out that when victims of child maltreatment were subject to eyewitness interview, the majority of them can remember the events or the experiences vividly even if the information of the experience is painful. Thus, it is concluded that the accuracy of the memory of a maltreated child is relatively high. However, there are no significant comparisons whether a maltreated childs memory is more accurate than that of the non-maltreated ones.
For example, in a study conducted by Eisen et al (2002), three 16-year olds were interviewed to examine their memory as part of an inpatient abuse-assessment program. There were no fixed categorization in the form of abuse, thus, the subjects ranged from the physical to sexual abuse, and even neglect. The study also examined non-victimized children as the experiments control group. Results showed interesting findings as follows first, it was found out that older children, who were abused from a younger age, are more likely to remember events vividly and possess the ability to answer questions in a precise manner as compared to the other subjects who are of younger age, abused a little older. Secondly, this particular group of victims rarely makes a mistake when they are asked of sexually-abusive misleading questions. Younger children, abused for a shorter amount of time, showed signs of confusion and distorted occurrences of abuse.
Eisen et al (2007) found greater disassociatative behaviors in young victims with memory errors during his examination. Trauma symptoms were not associated with increased inaccuracy for victims who appear beneath dissociative tendencies. This signifies larger memory error in traumatized children who are faced with a stressful event than those who were abused at a younger age.
Several issues received considerable attention in research on eyewitness memory among children being maltreated. Because memory is the core issue under study, it is palpable that findings would be vulnerable to external factors. Indeed, it is essential to conduct prospective research when researching documented cases of child sexual maltreatment. Other studies focused not on the question of whether people remembered documented child sexual abuse cases but instead on the accuracy of memory among individuals who in fact recognized the abuse. Overall, the memory of a maltreated child, with emotional characteristics, is more accurate in their recall of events and remain surpassingly true compared to the ordinary or non-emotional victim.
Conclusion
Research and the discussion above show that there is a strong relationship between child maltreatment and memory. Factors such as stress, trauma, and other psychological emotional instabilities are significant determiners of how a child remembers events pertaining to maltreatment. Child maltreatment may come in various forms such as child neglect, physical and sexual abuse. The intensity of which a child remembers events in correlation to the maltreatment is also dependent on his capability to cope in with such distress. Coping capabilities differ upon the gravity of the maltreatment received, the support system that the child has, and his personal clinging to such past events. It was discovered from the review of empirical studies above that the effect of childhood maltreatment can be potentially carried out into adulthood stage. One of the most common effects of maltreatment is memory, the occurrence of flashbacks. This, however, according to the articles reviewed, can be surpassed given an amount of time necessary for recovery.
Limitations
The review just focused on child maltreatment in general. There are other significant and more detailed areas of child maltreatment that needs to have an additional amount of attention. For example, the topic on eyewitness memory and child maltreatment was not discussed in the course of the review. There are related articles pertaining to such areas of study. Case studies were also not given to discuss in the comparisons of the effect of maltreatment into adulthood. It is equally important to somehow measure the span of abused time to the long term effect of maltreatment on a persons memory. Another interesting topic in relation to this one is how maltreatment affects intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships of the victim. Although this may cast a little attention to the memory, this area would great significance in helping to explain why victims of child maltreatment can or cannot handle relationships with quality.
Implications
Findings, in the studies being reviewed, have posted invaluable importance in the investigations of how maltreatment affects a childs memory. These studies have created a ground basis on which researchers can be able to plot a graphical memory development impact among maltreated children. Such could be a principal contributor for other research endeavors to push through. Civic organizations pertaining to children benefit from these kinds of studies, since it provides them with empirical information on the effects of child maltreatment. In return, these findings may potentially incur movements from concerned groups such as civic volunteers, policy makers, and health workers. What I think is most valuable to the contribution of research, like the one being reviewed, is that they induce the motivation and the urge for legislators to formulate laws that will protect the rights and welfare of those who are victims of abuse.
Future Researchers
Other researchers may want to tackle topics such as child maltreatment, memory, and its after-effects on the course the development of relationships or eyewitness memory and child maltreatment. Future research may also want to engage in different but related endeavors such as the effects of child maltreatment and memory in academic or professional performance andor child maltreatment and its post-trauma effects as experienced in personal relationships. Child neglect is considered the most frequent act of maltreatment, according to the Childrens Bureau (2009).
Outline
Topic Maltreatment of Children is very important to the effects of how children cope with the many issues of physical, emotional and mental abuse. There is a direct correlation between a childs memory (flashbacks of traumatic events) and their maltreatment. Memory is normally defined as the psychological accounts of experiences wherein a person is able to recount when a similar event or circumstance triggers the subconscious to relive the experience, thus, producing the same emotional distress as it happened in the first time of their experience. The main point of this paper is to identify some of the findings in research on this topic and the empirical findings from the psychological researchers research and examinations. Child maltreatment resulted in short-term brain damage, which significantly distorts a childs memory, causing the subject to experience false memories after laboratory examinations.
Body- The Nature of Maltreatment and its consequences found that the longer a child was subjected to abuse, as a youngster, the more accurate their memory is in recalling their traumatic abusive experience. Disciplinary means of correcting a child differ according to the societal setting. A major effect of child maltreatment and most problematic in terms of sociological capacity, is their perception on social relationships and their tendencies to lose trust for other people. intensity of the memory can be as severe as the first encounter of their traumatic experience. According to Goodman et al (2010), maltreatment is an act of physical abuse, sexual abuse, andor psychological abuse that constitutes profound failures of care giving and in effect, results to psychological and emotional damage. Definitions of maltreatment vary according to ones legal state interpretations or in ones cultural atmosphere. One certain effect of maltreatment, according to Goodman et al (2010) is that the child is being deprived of essential psychological and emotional factors for normal adaptation of personal development. In a study conducted by Eisen et al (2002), three 16-year olds were interviewed to examine their memory as part of an inpatient abuse-assessment program. Eisen et al (2007) found greater disassociatative behaviors in young victims with memory errors during his examination. The memory of a maltreated child, with emotional characteristics, is more accurate in their recall of events and remain surpassingly true compared to the ordinary or non-emotional victim.
Conclusion- Research shows a strong relationship between child maltreatment and memory. The intensity of which a child remembers events in correlation to the maltreatment is also dependent on his capability to cope with such distress. There are other significant and more detailed areas of child maltreatment that need attention, such as, the topic on eyewitness memory and child maltreatment. How maltreatment affects intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships of the victim. I think it would be invaluable research that they urge legislators to formulate laws that will protect the rights and welfare of those who are victims of abuse.
References for books
Child neglect is considered the most frequent act of maltreatment, according to the Childrens Bureau (2009).
According to Goodman et al (2010), children who experienced maltreatment exhibited poor emotional regulations as compared to non-maltreated children.
Goodman et al (2010) cited empirical findings that maltreated children easily identifies negative emotions such as anger or hatred and they can easily label such emotions as negative as compared to their ability to recognize positive ones. compared to their ability to recognize positive ones.
Child neglect is considered the most frequent act of maltreatment, according to the Childrens Bureau (2009).
Introduction
Thesis Statement There is a Direct Correlation between maltreatment and memory.
What is the main point of correlating maltreatment and memory
Background of the study
State additional information effects
State relevant data about components and elements of the research
Review related literatures
Directly relate empirical research about the chosen topic
Significance of the study
State who or what institutions, organizations would benefit
State fields that would benefit from your study
Research gap
State what areas in your study can be beneficial
State potential focus for future research efforts
Nature of child maltreatment
Causes of child abuse
Explain gap and association between physical and sexual abuse
Explain the role of the family in childs ability to counter effects of abuse
Maltreatment and memory
Impacts of child abuse on childs eyewitness memory
Stress
Trauma
Dissociation
Language ability
Intelligence
Effects of age and gender differences
The presence of false memories
The art of questioning
Biases on abuse-related questions based on empirical studies
Methods to measure child maltreatment
Conclusion and Recommendations
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