Exposure to violence and children’s security
Over the past years, violence among children has been a major problem that is characterized as a public health epidemic. Most children are open to violence in society, families, and the media. Research conducted by the National Summary of Injury Mortality Data shows that the rate of homicide among children between fifteen to twenty-four years of having has increased since 1951 to a rate of thirty-seven homicides in 1992. Violent behaviors among children include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. It occurs frequently among families in the United States. Some of the areas in the United States have more than half of the calls for police help are for domestic turbulences. Most of the media content in the United States is the most violent in the whole world. There are real and manufactured images of violence assault youths through the cinema, television, and the internet. The extend of children’s exposure to violence differs in many ways. Children living in low-income areas experience recurrent and frequent exposure to the use of knives, guns, drugs, and random violence in their neighborhoods. This paper will explain the developmental differences in the effects of exposure to infants, school-age children, adolescents, and adulthood. The paper will also address the various theories related to the topic being discussed.
A large number of children in America tell stories of witnessing violence including beatings and shootings. Exposure to community violence happens less regularly for children who do not live in lower socioeconomic areas. Exposure to media and family violence crosses socioeconomic and social borders, happening in all groups inside the communities. According to…..approximately thirty percent of women in the United States are beaten at least once in their intimate relationships. The research further explains that women have a higher likelihood to be injured compared to men, and thus require medical help due to the physical violence they face from their partners. The estimation of this violence differs based on the definition of the abuse and the samples studied by researchers. More than three million children experience physical and oral spousal abuse every year, comprising a variety of behaviors form insults and beating to fatal attacks with knives and guns. Children are likely to be physically abused and abandoned in homes where domestic violence occurs. In families where a woman is assaulted, the children are also assaulted. There is also exposure to violence in the media via the cinema, the internet, and television.
The American Psychiatric Association explains that a typical American child watches twenty-eight hours of television in a week. By the time the children are eighteen years old, they will have seen close to twenty thousand murders and acts of violence. Many children and adolescents are exposed to media with violent content because of the advent of videocassette sales and rentals of movies, pay-per-view, video games, and online collaborating computer games. Exposure to violence can have major impacts on children during development and as they develop their intimate relationships in childhood and adulthood. While children are affected by exposure to violence al all ages, very little is recognized about the outcome of the exposure at younger ages, particularly any long-term results. People assume that young children are not affected at all, mistakenly trusting that they are too undeveloped to discern or recall what has occurred. Further studies conducted reveal that there are associations between experience to violence and undesirable behaviors in children transversely all age choices.
Infants
Various research conducted to show that in the faces of infant development, there are exists a clear association between exposure to violence and emotional and behavioral complications. Infants who experience violence either in their homes or in their society display extreme petulance, undeveloped behavior, sleep turbulences, emotional suffering, fears of being lonely, and deterioration in toileting and ways of conversing with the others. They are also exposed to trauma; when the violence in the family interferes with the child’s normal development of trust and their exploratory behaviors with occur at a later age leading to the development of autonomy. According to…. The presence of symptoms in these infants may lead to traumatic stress disorder that might occur in their adulthood. For instance, at their adulthood, they may experience recurrent re-experiencing of the disturbing events, evasion, numbing of receptiveness, and augmented stimulation. Young children are likely to be afraid and uncomfortable to be close to scenes of violent events they had experienced. Most of them find it hard sleeping or wake up with nightmares. The children also lack or have a reduced range of emotions in their play.
School-Age children
There have been several studies conducted that support a connection between exposure to social violence and signs of anxiety, hostile behavior, and despair among the school-going children in violent neighborhoods. School going children who are exposed to violent acts in their homes show a rise in sleep disturbances, and likely to shore little interest in exploring and playing freely with their friends while in school. They frequently have trouble paying devotion and remaining focused because they are likely to be distracted by invasive feelings. Additionally, the school-age children are likely to comprehend more about the intentionality of the violence and disquiet about what they could have done to avert or sojourn it. School-age children who are visible to family violence are affected likewise to those exposed to public violence. These children frequently display a larger incidence of adopting and externalizing conduct glitches compared to those children from nonaggressive families. General operations, attitudes, societal capability, and overall performance in school are repeatedly affected destructively. Various studies indicate that as children grow and turn into adults, those who have been ill-treated and abandoned are more likely to execute poorly in school. They are also likely to engage in criminal activities and to experience emotional difficulties, sexual hitches, and alcohol misuse. Exposure to media violence may cause augmented undesirable deeds because of the potential for communal education and exhibiting unsuitable manners by adolescences. The violence that is intensely represented and idealized is likely to have undesirable impacts on children for violence.
Adolescents
Various researches have been conducted on the impact of exposure of violence to the youths. Research reveals that adolescents exposed to chronic societal violence in their whole lives have a likelihood of showing high levels of aggression and acting out convoyed by unease, behavioral difficulties, school problems, nonattendance, and retaliation seeking. Adolescents are exposed to severe effects of violence compared to children. Although some adolescents who experience social violence may be able to overcome the experience, many others are extremely damaged. For instance, some report giving up hope, expecting that they may not live through adolescence or early adulthood. Such recurrently disturbed youths often appear sedated to feelings and agony and show controlled expressive progress over time. The youths may also end up attaching themselves to peer-groups and mobs to act as substitute families and include violence as a means of dealing with disagreements and hindrances. Research on children visible to war steadily indicates that split-up from family and obliteration of significant primary relations is one of the most possibly destructive penalties of war for children, but that the children in war regions who are liked by their paternities or acquainted grown-ups agonized far less undesirable effects. Comparable results have been revealed in studies of children visible to other sorts of ferocity.
Adults/ parents
Parents that live in areas where there are high levels of violence are likely to get traumatized together with their children. It is important to recognize that when experiencing trauma, a parent’s ability to play a stable consistent responsibility in their children’s lives and thus support their resilience is likely to be compromised. Parents may find it hard to protect their kids and keep them safe from any dangers. The parents themselves may be insensitive, scared, and depressed thus making it difficult to deal with their grief and trauma and emotionally available to their children. This can be prevented by strengthening community support for parents because it is an effective intervention.
Theories related to the topic
Various theories have been developed to explain violence in families and I the community. Several psychological and sociological theories have been developed to explain this violence. For instance, the social learning theory explains that a person who experiences violence is more likely to use violence than those who have faced little or no violence. According to this theory, children who witness violence between their parents or experience violence themselves have a higher likelihood of using violence when they grow up. The exchange theory argues that domestic violence and child exploitation are controlled by the attitude of charges and assistance. Exploitation is used when the rewards are higher than the costs. The theory further explains that social endorsement of violence as expressive and contributory behavior increases the possible plunder for violence. The most substantial reward is social controller or authority. The feminist theory views violence towards women as exclusive occurrences that have been hidden and overshadowed by a slight emphasis on domestic violence. According to the theory, patriarchy is viewed as a leading relegation of women and bases the past pattern of methodical violence focused against womanhood.
Conclusion
Exposure to violence and children’s security has been a major area of concern in our society. Violent behaviors among children include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. It occurs frequently among families in the United States. Some of the areas in the United States have more than half of the calls for police help are for domestic turbulences. Most of the media content in the United States is the most violent in the whole world. There are real and manufactured images of violence assault youths through the cinema, television, and the internet. Various theories are related to violence and children’s security. For instance, the social learning theory explains that children who witness violence between their parents or experience violence themselves have a higher likelihood of using violence when they grow up. The feminist theory says that patriarchy is viewed as a leading relegation of women and bases the past pattern of methodical violence focused against womanhood. This research paper is important because it enables parents, teachers, and other relevant people to better understand violence and children safe and know how to deal with them. Other researchers can gain additional information and conduct further study.