FAMILY violence including familial child abuse and neglect, and intimate partner violence is a major public health and social issue. It affects a large proportion of people and shapes every aspect of their life, from their physical and mental health to their education, ability to interact with people, employment, and even criminal involvement.
Yet what many individuals fail to understand is that child abuse is inextricably linked with violence later in life, and if nothing is done to help victims of child abuse while they’re still young, such will become caught up in the continuing cycle of violence.
A public opinion poll conducted by NOI Polls has revealed that 34 per cent of adult Nigerians have disclosed that they experienced some form of bullying during their secondary school days. More findings from the poll revealed that physical (65 per cent), extreme punishment (46 per cent) and exploitation (24 per cent) are the top three forms of bullying mostly experienced in various secondary schools across the country.
However, it is worrisome that out of the (34 per cent) who have been bullied before, (70 per cent) did not report the incident while (27 per cent) said they reported the incident. Also, of the (27 per cent) who mentioned that they reported, (41 per cent) of them claimed that nothing was done to the perpetrators after they were reported.
The evidence of the connections between childhood abuse and neglect, and family violence later in life is unmistakable. “ There are many risks in families that we don’t pay attention to like domestic violence, not only is domestic violence detrimental to women’s mental health, but it is also dangerous to raise children in such a toxic environment,” said Dr Olatunde Ayinde, a consultant psychiatrist.
Dr Ayinde spoke at the 2022 World Mental Health symposium organised by the Oyo State Primary Health Care Board in partnership with the Asido Foundation and the Medical Women Association of Nigeria.
He added, “if you notice, a new-born in his baby cot in the house and adults are fighting and shouting, even though the new-born does not understand what they are saying, you will notice, usually may just start to cry. They can feel the tension in the air.
“Also, individuals, including children that witness violence and trauma are also at risk of developing mental health conditions in the future. And that is why it is important to keep physical abuse, sexual abuse, bullying and intimate partner violence as far as possible from homes where we raise children to ensure they thrive well. Children model after parents.”
For example, children whose mothers have been the subject of substantiated child abuse or neglect have 10 times the risk of being the subject of substantiated child abuse themselves, and nearly 20 times the risk of being removed into out-of-home care of due to imminent and serious safety concerns.
Dr Haleem Abdulrahman, a consultant psychiatrist, at University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, added that the association between maltreatment when a child is young and subsequent development of suicidal behaviour or suicidal act is well-established.
According to him, “Young people who grow up in abuse environments, who are constantly maltreated, they develop a constant state of emotional instability; they develop a persistent state of emotional turmoil that may rise to push them to severe depression or severe psychosis and then subsequently can make them have suicidal thoughts or suicidal behaviour.
“This association is well established and usually, when they are victims of consistent and persistent child maltreatment or a severe physical abuse that goes on for a long time in such young people.”
Moreover, Dr Abdulrahman declared that stopping the cycle of abuse is particularly important to ensure children in such families also don’t grow up to be abusers, too.
He added, “We realize that most times people who bully were also themselves victims of bullying in the past. Now, they cope by bullying other people. It is also a sign that they also have a lot of problems. That is why we don’t just target people who are bullied alone, we also want to find out the bullies themselves and help them tackle the distress and the problems they too may have experienced.”
For example, Teenage dating violence is three to four times as common in girls exposed to familial child abuse or neglect and eight to 45 times as likely in boys with such exposure.
Teenagers exposed to child abuse or neglect are five to 33 times more likely to attend an emergency department for poisoning or self-harm and up to 49 times as likely to present at an emergency for a mental health issue.
So, breaking the intergenerational cycle of abuse is paramount. Unless there is substantial funding and resources redirected to preventing child abuse and neglect and providing skilful social and therapeutic services to those with histories of abuse, little will change.
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