Lesson Two - Physical - Causes

• What are the numbers?
• Neglect
  • Indicators
  • Causes
• Physical
  • Considerations
  • Causes
• Emotional
• Sexual
• Cultural Issues
• Guidelines

Possible Causes of Physical Abuse

Just like neglect, there may be many reasons why physical abuse is present in the home. Again, environmental factors play a role in provoking or intensifying physical abuse. Job insecurity and other hardships may result in stress for the parents. Parents who were abused themselves are more likely to continue the cycle of abuse. 

Particular parental traits have also been known to increase the risk of child maltreatment. These traits include:

• poor impulse control
• limited ability to control anger
• inability to understand signals
• lack of knowledge of normal development and non-abusive methods of discipline

It is important for mandated reporters to remember that most of these traits can be effected by appropriate programs recommended CPS. Once the homestead is stabilized with services, parents in Oakland County are encouraged to attend parent training classes in order to learn appropriate parenting skills. One such program is the Nurturing Program offered by the Child Abuse and Neglect Council of Oakland County. Offering alternatives to physical punishment is a main focus of such programs. Mandated reporters should be aware that once abuse is reported, it not only helps the child, but the entire family. 

What is the difference abuse and discipline?

In order for children to grow up and become productive members of society, subject to society’s norm, values, and rules, all children need discipline. The word discipline means to instruct or teach. The American Academy of Pediatrics asserts that effective discipline includes three things:

1.    A learning environment characterized by supportive relationships;

2.    A strategy for encouraging and teaching desired behaviors;

3.    A strategy for decreasing or eliminating undesired behaviors

So, is spanking child abuse????

The answer to this question is “yes” when it results in injury to the child. But this is not the question that we should be asking. It should be “Does spanking (or corporal punishment) really do what I want it to do?”

The American Academy of Pediatrics answer to this question is that, although spanking may immediately stop the undesired behaviors, its effectiveness decreases with each use. The only way to maintain the initial effect of spanking is to increase its use and intensity, which can cross over the line towards abuse if it results in injury to the child. Further, the excessive use of punishment teaches children to resolve conflicts violently and to use physical power rather than reason to obtain results or express anger.

One of the most significant impacts we can make as professionals who work with children is to teach parents to use positive discipline techniques rather than physical force. Encouraging parents to spend quality time with their children and to use time-outs effectively will go much further in preventing child abuse than any debate we might have about spanking.

Source: Guidance for Effective Discipline, American Academy of Pediatrics, Policy Statement, April 1998, vol.101(4).

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