Psychological Maltreatment Study Guide PDF

**Study Guide** **[Ch. 10 Psychological Maltreatment]** **Definitions and Forms of Psychological Maltreatment** Psychological maltreatment (PM) is defined as a repeated pattern or extreme incident(s) of caregiver behavior that undermines a child's basic psychological needs (e.g., safety, emotiona...

**Study Guide** **[Ch. 10 Psychological Maltreatment]** **Definitions and Forms of Psychological Maltreatment** Psychological maltreatment (PM) is defined as a repeated pattern or extreme incident(s) of caregiver behavior that undermines a child's basic psychological needs (e.g., safety, emotional support, respect) or conveys that the child is unwanted, worthless, or only useful for another's needs. PM includes acts of commission (e.g., verbal threats) and omission (e.g., ignoring a child's needs) and can be a standalone issue or part of other maltreatment types, such as physical or sexual abuse​​. 1. While PM can occur alone, it also cooccurs with other forms of CM 2. It is necessary to recognize that PM is a separate issue and deserves unique legal protection and process. 3. Child protection must also include PM **Six Subtypes of PM** The six subtypes of PM include: 1. **Spurning**: Verbal and nonverbal acts that reject or degrade a child. 2. **Exploiting/Corrupting**: Encouraging inappropriate behaviors or attitudes. - Promoting inappropriate behavior, including sexual or deviant/violent behavior - Corrupting a child's important relationships (family and friends) - Coercing submission through dominance, micromanaging, and manipulation. - Restricting or interfering with cognitive development or social development (including volitional, emotional, and free will) - Caregiver Fabricated Illness. 3. **Terrorizing**: Threatening the child or creating a climate of fear. - Includes loyalty conflicts between parents that could terrorize the child - Witnessing DV/IPV - Unrealistic expectations - Placing a child in dangerous situations 4. **Emotional Unresponsiveness**: Ignoring the child's emotional and developmental needs. - Shows no emotion towards the child, failing to express compassion, caring, love, or even interest. - Interacting strictly when required - Emotional responsiveness accompanies other forms of abuse and maltreatment - Children often become clingy and require constant support. 5. **Isolating**: Preventing social interactions or restricting freedom - Consistently and unreasonably restricting the child\'s ability to fulfill social needs and create relationships with friends and family - Confining or restricting movements - Restricting or controlling interaction with family and friends - Helicopter Parenting - Any physical or sexual abuse that results in the isolation of the child or restricting of their movements and interactions/communication. 6. **Mental Health, Medical, and Educational Neglect**: Failing to address or actively denying necessary treatments​. - Failure to address or provide services for an educational issue - Any physical or sexual abuse that results in the educational or medical neglect of a child. **Impact Considerations** The impact of PM depends on factors such as: - **Intensity and Frequency**: How extreme and persistent maltreatment is. - **Developmental Timing**: PM during sensitive developmental periods (e.g., early childhood) can cause more harm. - **Genetics:** Sensitivity to the psychosocial environment related to genetic and biological factors - **Mitigating Factors/Environmental Factors**: Positive relationships or support can buffer negative outcomes​​. The caregiver\'s role and emotional involvement influence impact. **Types of Harms** PM has been linked to five broad categories of harm, including: 1. **Intrapersonal Problems**: Anxiety, depression, self-image, self-esteem, and suicidal behaviors. 2. **Emotional Problems**: Substance abuse, eating disorders, BPD, and other emotional instability. 3. **Social Competency Issues**: Impaired social skills, aggression, delinquency, phobias, disorganized insecure attachments, dependency, sexual maladjustment, aggression, criminal behavior, and lack of empathy. 4. **Learning Problems**: Impaired academic performance and cognitive development, decline in IQ, school issues due to impulse control or noncompliance, and impaired reasoning 5. **Physical Health Issues**: Chronic health problems and biological changes tied to severe PM​​, delays in development, allergies, asthma, headache, sleep complaints, and respiratory ailments. - Shown to also be related to risky lifestyle choices later in life: tobacco use, risky sexual behavior, increased risk of HIV and STIs. **Severity Considerations:** a. Intensity, extent, frequency, and chronicity of the caregiver\'s behavior b. Number of CM/PM subtypes present c. Degree to which the relationship with the primary caregiver(s) is pervaded by the behavior d. Salience of the types of PM/CM for the developmental periods that will follow or in the current developmental period. (how much is the caregiver\'s behavior setting them back / will set them back in terms of comparison with healthy controls of the same age) e. Extent to which harm has already occurred or will occur f. Mitigating influences g. Willingness of parents to change **Impact at Development Periods: Spurning and terrorizing are the two most common forms, together considered Hostile Parenting.** - The most damaging period is through the first two years of life, during attachment, and adolescence (puberty) - Related to internalizing and personality disorders **A Three-Tiered Approach** Focus on ALL CHILDREN / Protect those at risk / Stopping the abuse of current victims The three-tiered model for intervention includes: 1. **Primary Prevention**: Universal programs promoting child well-being. (all children) 2. **Secondary Prevention**: Targeted interventions for children at risk. (protect) 3. **Tertiary Prevention**: Intensive services for children experiencing maltreatment (current vics) **[Self Esteem]** 1. **Scapegoating**: child made to feel responsible for anything and everything that goes wrong in the home or family. a. Usually, focuses on older children b. This leads to negative self-image and poor self-esteem 2. **Comparing**: the child is compared to siblings/neighbors/others c. Compared based on achievement/grades/behavior/goals d. Fosters resentment e. Strains adult-parent relationship 3. **Criticizing**: equivalent to verbal abuse, the child is called names or criticized which destroys self-esteem f. Child believes they are the things they hear (labeling theory) 4. **Demanding Perfection**: the child is asked to meet impossible standards or expectations. g. Severe stress and anxiety later in life h. OCD or OC-tendencies i. Learned incompetence/helplessness 5. **Physical Neglect/Abuse**: The parent doesn't take care of the child\'s basic needs j. Child feels the lack of attention and feels unlived and unimportant k. Low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness l. Physical abuse is an assault on the child\'s sense of autonomy 6. **Lack of Emotional Support**: emotional neglect where the parent takes no interest in the child and spends no time with them. m. Little to no communication with children n. No discussing emotions/validating feelings/or modeling healthy emotional expression. o. Child feels unloved and uncared for 7. **Withholding Love and Affection**: Parents are cold and emotionally distant, making children feel unwanted. p. Children internalize the situation and blame themselves. **[Bullying]** **Juvenile violence**: 94,700 arrests of children in 2016. Roughly 1K/year. - Most common offenses are vandalizing, petty theft, shoplifting, and graffiti. **Teen homicide**: rates declined from 1993 to 2013 - Slow increase 2012-17 from 6.6/100K to 8.7/100K - Some children kill parents (Parricide = matricide and patricide) - Sometimes attributed to abuse **Teen suicide**: 123 deaths per day, 1 every 12 minutes (CDC, 2016) - 2^nd^ leading cause of death for Americans aged 15-24, 11.8/100K in 2017 - 517 suicides, in 2017, in the 10-14 age group - 6,250 in the 15-24 age group **Teen firearms**: There has been a 30% increase in teen deaths with firearms, up to 13.8/100K in 2017 **Bullying and cyberbullying**: 20% of students between 12-18 experience bullying. - 30% admit to bullying, suggesting that more than 20% of students have been victims. - Intervention stops bullying within 10 seconds, 57% of the time. - 15% of 12--18-year-olds have experienced cyberbullying. - LGBTQ youth are easy/frequent targets, including Bi / Multiracial children - 160K children miss school every day due to fear of bullying. **Types of Bullying**: 1) Verbal and social bullying are the most common types of bullying, especially when done in groups, more often social than physical. 2) Cyberbullying. **Bullying causes**: Depression/Anxiety/helplessness/hopelessness/suicidal ideation/suicide **Bullycide**: suicide due to bullying. **[Prevention]** **Public Health Framework of Prevention:** 2014, Healthy Outcomes from Pathetic Experiences (HOPE) 1. **Strengthen Parent Resilience**: improve parents\' abilities to deal with stressors and emotions, without becoming stressed/anxious/depressed 2. **Knowledge about Child Development**: many parents are not educated in these areas and can be unaware of the effects of their actions on their children. 3. **Involve Parents as Partners**: ensure that parents are engaged in their children\'s lives, present, and informed about what is happening with them. Parent involvement mitigates the negative effects of poverty, ethnic background, and parents\' education levels. - Parent involvement leads to higher grades/better attendance/better HW completion/higher graduation rates/less drug abuse, violence, and deviant behavior. 4. **Consistent Social Support**: collaboration between parents and professionals reduces the rates of CM. - Home visits - Therapy (for everyone in the house) - Couple's counseling - Parenting class - School support **Parent involvement leads to healthy parental relationships** **School support programs need to be more available and offered** **Government involvement at the state city and national levels is required to standardize definitions of abuse and maltreatment, to help with more effective interventions.**