How Traumatic Home Experiences Affect Adolescents
Each year hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S. alone experience traumatic experiences at home including child neglect or even abuse which can dramatically affect the cognitive development of these children and can make their lives and futures extremely difficult. Three important aspects of traumatic home experience cases include the treatment from parents or guardians, how the experiences affect the adolescent, how the adolescent can improve and get help after going through such an experience.
The way a child is raised results from the strategies and the philosophy the parents hold, the specific strategies of their child care, and the personality characteristics of them and their child (Feldman, 2017, p. 329). The types of parents who show little to no interest in their children are known as uninvolved parents. Children with parents such as this are not looked after or taken care of and can feel unloved and emotionally incapable. Factors usually involved with neglectful parents include substance abuse, mental illnesses, domestic violence, or a disability (Roditti, 2005, p. 279). Substance abuse has gotten more and more popular as the years go by. These substances can include alcohol, heroin, methamphetamines, cocaine, and many more. Often times the parent will be high or intoxicated and the child will be neglected or maybe even abused since the parent isn’t in a clear state of mind. A popular mental health problem in neglectful parents is generalized depression. Often times the mother is depressed rather than the father. She often comes off as very withdrawn from reality and is unable to notice and recognize the needs of her child. Millions of cases of postpartum depression (PPD) occur each year in the U.S. Mothers suffering from PPD are often inconsistent with child care whether it’s the child’s feeding and sleeping routines or their health in general. Domestic violence plays a large role in the development of adolescents and can include verbal, physical, mental, or sexual violence (Aacap, 2019). When parents fight they may not believe it will directly affect their child. This is not the case. Even children who do not witness the violence first-hand are affected by the family conflict. However, there are times when the child is directly affected by the violence by witnessing it or by possibly suffering an injury. These experiences can considerably affect the child in their lives outside of the home and in the future.
When parents lack responses to support their child’s emotional expressions, their children often lack emotion-regulation skills and adaptive socioemotional skills. People who have gone through and survived abusive childhoods often find difficulty in connecting with the normal world outside of their abusive family construct. Many of those affected by these experiences are associated with having problems with anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and even romantic relationships (Erbes, 1999, p. 215). They tend to alienate and self-destruct themselves. These issues become reoccurring and are often difficult to overcome more and more as a person ages. The way these people act may influence those around them in negative ways. Those who associate with these unstable people may feel unwanted and get distant because they feel as if they are being pushed away when the actual problem is the person doesn’t fully understand how to handle or react to the way they are feeling. Since neglect and abuse are against societal norms, the children in their future may be misunderstood by those from nonabusive backgrounds because they may not fully know about their background and what completely happened and they aren’t able to sympathize with them. In his article Erbes states “sexual abuse survivors [are described] as perceiving themselves as different from their ‘ideal self’ and from their constructions of significant others.”
There are several different ways those who have suffered a neglectful or abusive childhood can improve and receive help, two of which include behavioral therapy and psychological interventions. In his case report, Unterhitzenberger states “Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based treatment manual for children and adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” TF-CBT is supposedly the best-supported therapy for those in their younger years. It involves twelve 45–50 minute sessions with both the abused child and the caregiver. The treatment includes eight different sections, some of which include relaxation, emotion control, positive parenting skills, and even future safety skills. Children who go through this treatment improve in a “clinically reliable manner” and show no effects of PTSD post-treatment (Unterhitzenberger, 2016, p. 4). Another treatment possibility is psychological interventions (King, 2003, p. 6). The purpose of these interventions is to overcome the intense feelings of anxiety, guilt, and shame that may come from their abusive experiences. Throughout this therapy style, children are taught how to cope, relax, respond well to positive encounters, and to ignore any teasing or bullying that may occur. These skills will help the affected child to overcome their negative emotions and memories related to their traumatic experiences.
Child neglect and abuse are major issues in today’s world and are very sensitive topics. Abuse and neglect deeply affect all people included. The abuser may suffer from many different mental illnesses, substance abuse, disabilities, and maybe even act on other domestic violence. Children who have been abused often show a lack of emotion and self-esteem. They tend to tear themselves down from anxiety and depression because they have shame and grief from their experiences. However, to help improve these children’s lives and futures, different remedies have been designated to help with the trauma of these experiences. These children may go through cognitive behavioral therapy, psychological interventions, and many other treatments. If these treatments, therapies, and terrible stories have the ability to deter people from becoming abusive or neglectful, hopefully, those hundreds of thousands of abused and neglected children will decrease in future years.
References
Aacap. (2019, May). Domestic Violence and Children. Retrieved December 2019, from http://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Helping-Children-Exposed-to-Domestic-Violence-109.aspx.
Erbes, C. R., & Harter, S. L. (1999). Domain-Specific Cognitive Complexity in Survivors of Child Abuse. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 12(3), 215–237.
Feldman, R. S. (2017). Development. In Essentials of Understanding Psychology (pp. 308–360). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education
King, N. J., Heyne, D., Tonge, B. J., Mullen, P., Myerson, N., Rollings, S., & Ollendick, T. H. (2003). Sexually Abused Children Suffering From Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Assessment and Treatment Strategies. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 32(1), 2. https://doi-org.proxy.southeast.edu/10.1080/16506070310003620
Roditti, M. G. (2005). Understanding Communities of Neglectful Parents: Child Caregiving Networks and Child Neglect. Child Welfare, 84(2), 277–298. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.southeast.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=16371782&site=ehost-live
Unterhitzenberger, J., & Rosner, R. (2016). Case report: manualized trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy with an unaccompanied refugee minor girl. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 7, 1–N.PAG.
