Running head: A CHILD CALLED IT A Child Called It 2 A CHILD CALLED IT A Child Called It According to The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), child abuse and neglect is a recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm and includes victims of human child trafficking (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2019). Most of the federal and state child protection laws provide protection for abuse to a child that is caused by parents or caregivers, and some state laws also include the witnessing or presence of domestic violence in the presence of a child to be a form of child abuse also. The major types of child abuse include physical abuse, neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse and emotional abuse, separate or in combination with other types of abuse. A Child Called It is a book that presents the personal accounts of Dave Pelzer’s abuse that he experienced by his mother from the age of four to twelve. Dave lived with his mother, his father and his four brothers. Dave was exposed to physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, from repeatedly being starved, slave cleaning, stabbing, forced to drink ammonia, burned on the stove, consuming his own vomit, locking him in the garage and sleeping on the floor without sufficient bedding and warmth, sitting or standing in one place for extended lengths of time and forcing him to watch the rest of the family participate in activities but not allowing Dave to participate, even leaving him behind during a family vacation. Before the age of four, Dave recalled being part of a happy and loving family with parents who were devoted to their children. After he turned four, for reasons unknown to him, he became the target of abuse from his mother, and was the only child in the family to receive this undue punishment and abuse by his mother. He recalls the abuse escalated when his mother was drinking and would become 3 A CHILD CALLED IT drunk, and at times he recalled her spending most of her days on the couch in a drunken stupor. As time went on and Dave became challenged not to let his mother see the emotional toll of the abuse, she would become even more enraged, callus and manipulative, resulting in harsher abuse and punishment, as if she was trying to completely crush his emotional being. It didn’t seem that there was a reason or cause for Dave to be singled out and abused. The accounts in the book described Dave as being somewhat mischievous, but mostly the actions of a typical young boy his age. While reading the book, I was perplexed as to why Dave’s mother repeatedly mistreated him but was loving to her other children. There is no excuse and should be no tolerance for the abuse and treatment Dave had to endure from his mother and to add to the complexity, Dave’s father recognized the abuse that occurring and didn’t step in and help stop the abuse. Mental instabilities alter a person’s thoughts and behaviors causing difficulty with coping with personal skills and life situations. Mental illness and addiction has been linked to an increased level of neglect and child abuse. Statistically studies have shown that separated families, families with depressed parents, alcohol consumption by mother, exposure to repeated violence in childhood and low family income are major contributors to child abuse, but it is unknown if this is of correlation between Dave’s mother’s mental instability and drinking and is also not understood as to why she targeted only one of her sons (Eslami-Shahrbabki, Eslami-Shahrbabaki, & Kalantair, 2013). According to Find Law, Child abandonment occurs when a parent, guardian, or person in charge of a child either deserts a child without any regard for the child's physical health, safety or welfare and with the intention of wholly abandoning the child, or in some instances, fails to provide necessary care for a child living under their roof (Find Law, 2019, para. 1). Dave’s father failed to protect him from the abuse as a parent and as a first responder. Dave cherished his 4 A CHILD CALLED IT father and turned to him for love and protection. His father tried to stand up to his wife in the beginning and protect Dave, but the subject soon became a fight between the mother and father, and he backed down from her intimidation and left home for extended periods of time and drank more. He was obligated to protect his son and failed to provide that protection from the abuse and neglect, but he didn’t, and this led to him failing to remove his son from the repeated and continued abuse. He should have reported the situation, protected Dave from his mother, and whether he decided to leave or not, he should not have left Dave or the other children with their mother. Dave endured years of emotional and physical abuse, but he determined that he would not let his mother break his spirit in the end. He was resilient and determined to survive, even after repeated abuse. How he maintained such a strength from the maltreatment experienced from the starvation and stab wound that drained his physical and emotional strength is an among miracle. He was courageous and survived the horrific, unimaginable torture while being completely drained of nutrition and health. I think when he saw that his weakness evolved a reaction from his mother, he saw that this was his opportunity to have hope and fight to not let her conquer him. While every child responds to abuse and neglect in their own way, the reactions can have lifelong impacts that can be linked to physical, psychological and behavioral consequences they are plagued by for years to come, but there are effective therapeutic modalities to help combat the after effects of the trauma (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2019). The survival and resiliency theory claims that when someone is faced with challenging situations there is a push to adapt to the trauma or adversity. Adverse situations can lead a person 5 A CHILD CALLED IT to surrender and give in or to fight harder to the traumatic situation. The will to survivor the situation and adapt can be defined by six significant predictors of resilience: 1. Stressors: activate the resilience process and create disruption in homeostasis 2. External Environment Context: the child’s balance of risk and protective factors in their environment 3. Person-Environment Interaction Processes: the child engaged in passive or active understanding to overcome the situation 4. Internal Self Characteristics: encompasses the spiritual, cognitive, behavioral, physical and emotional strengths to be resilient 5. Resilience Processes: coping processes learned through exposure to stressors 6. Positive Outcomes: successful adaption to the traumatic events (Reid, 2019) At one-point Dave showed desperation and doubt in faith, but he may have held that faith deep inside him and his faith in the Lord may have contributed to his strength to see the future he might one day have free of the abuse and neglect that was bestowed on him by his mother. Or maybe it was his baby brother that found hope and happiness in that made him maintain faith and determination. It appears that there was correlation between his faith and reciting The Lord’s Prayer when he finally learns that he is free from the abuse and neglect. For him to turn to The Lord’s Prayer during this time of freedom but also uncertain as to what is in store for his future, appears to be a turning point that reaffirms his faith. 6 A CHILD CALLED IT References Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2019). Long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect. Retrieved from chromeextension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdf s/long_term_consequences.pdf Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2019). What is a child abuse and neglect? Recognizing the signs and symptoms. Retrieved from chromeextension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPD Fs/whatiscan.pdf Eslami-Shahrbabki, A., Eslami-Shahrbabaki, M., & Kalantair, M. (2013, Summer-Autumn). Association between parental addiction and types of child abuse in high-school students of Kerman, Iran. Addiction and Health, 5(3-4), 108-114. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905472/ Find Law. (2019). Child abandonment. Retrieved from https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminalcharges/child-abandonment.html Reid, D. (2019). Resilience theory: What research articles in psychology teach us. Retrieved from https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/resilience-theory/#resilience-theory
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