Nowadays, it is uncommon to see child abuse stories splashed all over the media. Child abuse is classified into four different types, such as physical, mental, sexual, and neglect. It is impossible in Malaysia to deny that these four types of child abuse persist until today. However, most child abuse happened in Malaysia, involving sexual harassment and abuse towards them. Sexual abuse is a form that includes sexual activity with a minor. It does not need to have physical contact between a perpetrator and a child. Some forms of child sexual abuse are exhibitionism or exposing oneself to a minor, producing, owning, or sharing pornographic images and movies considered sexually abusive. These kinds of activities will bring many adverse effects in their future when they grow up. Thus, in this essay, our group will summarize the two articles that highlight the correlation between child sexual abuse and the long term effect that enable us to point out our own opinions regarding this issue.
First and foremost, the first article was written by Melinda Smith, M.A., Lawrence Robinson and Jeanne Segal (2019) entitled "Child Abuse and Neglect" highlighted the effects of child abuse. Still, our group summarised child sexual abuse effects. It stated that sexual abuse does not always involve body contact; exposing them to pornography material is also considered child sexual abuse. As we know, in this era of technology, children are more exposed to this risk factor as they own mobile phones. Sexually abused children are often tormented by shame and guilt. They may feel that they are responsible for the abuse or somehow brought it upon themselves. Hence, this can lead to self-loathing and sexual and relationship problems when they grow up. Besides, they might feel very useless and not confident to come forward. The victims may worry that the others would not believe and angry with them. They also think that they can split their family apart. This can lead to difficulty in maintaining a family bond in the future. In a nutshell, child sexual abuse can lead to a lack of trust and affect the family relationship.
From another standpoint, the second article was written by Canadian Mental Health (2013) entitled "Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Mental Health Issue" discusses the long term effect on their mental health. Children's sexual abuse also cause trauma and affect their adult well-being. Based on the article, trauma is an effect in a shocking, intense, and distressing situation. Trauma from this abuse may cause dissociation. The victim's mind will separate itself from painful events to protect itself. They may have a bitter time memorizing what had happened to them. They tend to feel useless and unlucky being in this world. They also think that the world around them is just unreal at all. This common reaction tends to have a mental illness. Experiencing sexual abuse, the children will develop a mental illness such as anxiety, depressions, eating disorder, and personality disorder. Experiencing childhood sexual abuse may change the way children live their lives in the future and how they behave to survive for their adult being. Altogether, this article stands that sexual child abuse leads to an overall long term effect in their life.
Based on the two articles above, both indicate the effect of sexual child abuse, which leads to adverse impacts when they become adults. The first article proposes that childhood abuse will cause a lack of trust issues and relationship problems. In contrast, the second article states the correlation between mental health and child sexual abuse when they become adults. From our perspective, this emotional and psychological problem will be a burden in the long term of the victim's lives. Besides, this will hinder their behaviour, lifestyle, and health, especially their mental health. Moreover, this will also lead to suicide due to the significant amount of pressure they had to endure independently. To prevent the worst possible outcome, they can get mental treatment from psychiatrists to overcome the trauma from their past. This problem cannot be solved if one tries to overcome it independently instead of with the help of their best friend and peers to overcome the trust issues. These adverse effects must be treated for the better of the victim's lives and the others around them. By doing so, the problem of child sexual abuse can be avoided. As a saying, prevention is better than cure.
In conclusion, we have selected two articles and elaborated further on how children who experience sexual abuse will change and affect their future. There are many types of abuse and the effects of child abuse, but we only focus on the impact of sexual abuse on children. The influence we learn about sexual abuse from the article is that the child will have difficulty deciding which person to trust. Most children get sexual abuse by people who close to them, such as their family and close people around them. And as they grow older, they are also traumatized by the sexual abuse that occurred when they were younger. Therefore, it will endanger their mental health due to stress, fear, and depression in the long run. Therefore, as adults, we must take care and show love to them, do not take advantage of their weaknesses. We will never know how trauma will affect them in the future.
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