CHILD ABUSE WITHIN THE HISPANIC COMMUNITY

The research examines the phenomenon of child abuse among Hispanics residing in the United States. Implications for social work are addressed.

American society is becoming increasingly sensitized to the phenomenon of child abuse. Politicians, social service professionals, criminal justice professionals, and other responsible parties are under increasing pressures to develop and implement policies that will both protect the public, provide assistance to victims, and provide help to the extent possible to the perpetrators of child abuse.

A variety of reasons underlie the social and psychological problems exhibited by many children in contemporary society. One of these factors is abuse perpetrated by someone in a position of trust or authority in the life of a young person (Howing, 1990, pp. 244-49). The most debilitating outcomes of abuse experienced by a young person are a loss of self-esteem, hopelessness, and depression (Ogata, 1990, pp. 1008-1013). The cycle of abuse, hopelessness, depression, and the loss of self-esteem is associated with such outcomes as a failure to develop effective interpersonal skills, ineffective social integration, and dysfunctional families (Jean-Gilles & Crittenden, 1990, pp. 323-329).

Pollock (1990, pp. 1290-1293) found that children of divorced parents were more likely than were other children to experience abuse. The battered child is the most pre

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lso tend to find it difficult to both define their own identity, and to determine what is expected of them. Self-esteem among these children is typically low, and they tend to have a low sense of self-worth. Hispanic victims of child abuse tend to experience greater levels of depression and anxiety than that which characterizes the general population of abuse children (Mennen, 1994, pp. 475-486). Abusing parents are typically unable to establish effective limits for their children. As a consequence, these children are often unable to "learn the difference between right and wrong," and between "acceptable and unacceptable behavior" (Kokin & Walker, p. 130). Implications For Social Work Reports indicate that the number of child abuse cases in the United States increases annually, and that these increases are greater than the increase in the child population of the country (Ginsberg, 1992, p. 29). The year-to-year percentage increase in the number of child abuse cases has been decreasing since 1983; however, society cannot be complacent about this apparent trend, because as the base number of child abuse cases increases, an increase in the absolute number of such cases occurring within a given year may not translate into an in

Category: Psychology - C