The Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare (MSPYBS) urges parents and citizens in general to pay attention to certain signs presented by children and adolescents who suffer different forms of abuse.
The health institution recalled that victims at this stage endure emotional consequences throughout their lives. In addition, he mentioned that the interaction that parents have with their children generates structural and functional changes in their brains.
“Education or correction” based on physical and psychological aggression and, on the other hand, overprotection, as well as negligence in care, mean that children and adolescents do not learn to develop their personal resources to face the world, he explained, the psychologist of the Pediatric General Hospital “Niños de Acosta Ñu”, licensed Zunilda Zaracho.
He argued that victims of abuse during childhood and/or adolescence generally tend to feel fearful and anxious, or easily out of control in their mood. He added that they can go from a calmness to an explosion of anger or inconsolable crying for the smallest things that happen to them and that they dislike.
He stated that they are more likely to repeat cycles during adult life, for example, getting involved in abusive relationships or becoming abusive. They are at higher risk for mental health-related problems, such as depression and anxiety; or to physical health, such as developing diabetes, obesity, heart disease, or other problems.
He added that preschoolers may return to bedwetting, thumb sucking or crying more often. They may show signs of terror and severe separation anxiety, hide, stutter, and develop sleep problems.
He asserted that those who are of school age, on many occasions, may feel guilty for the abuse they suffered. He went on to say that they may not participate in school activities, get poor grades (it is known that the most reliable indicator of childhood depression is a drop in grades), have less desire to socialize with friends, and get into trouble with more often. They may suffer more headaches and stomachaches, that is, have physical symptoms without a specific cause that can be found by pediatricians in auxiliary studies.
Regarding the behavior of adolescents, they can act in a negative way, such as fighting with relatives, skipping school, having indiscriminate and unprotected sexual relations and incurring in the consumption of drugs or alcohol. They may have low self-esteem and may not be able to make friends easily. They may start fights and/or harass other people.
Violence has several faces and, among the most frequent, physical, psychological and sexual; also those of gender, conjugal and economic. Violence is always a way of exercising the power of domination, through the use of force by the one who “believes” superior over the one designated as inferior.
