Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical or psychological maltreatment of a child by an adult or adults. Child abuse is often synonymous with the term child maltreatment or the term child abuse and neglect.

Symptoms

Among the symptoms that various professionals sometimes ascribe to and seek as signs of child abuse are:

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• Emotional abuse
• emotional withdrawal/distance
• parental refusal of needed medical care
• premature sexual/romantic promiscuity for girls
• lack of sexual interest (e.g. dating) for boys (with respect to age, cultural, and religious beliefs)
• shyness
• child seems afraid of parents/care givers
• stunting of mental/emotional growth
• failure to look people in the eye
• temper tantrums/violence
• speech and language difficulties
• broken promises to child by care givers without valid reasons
• Neglect (Under protection)
• general dirtiness
• general unhealthiness
• lice, fleas and similar parasites
• parental refusal of needed medical care
• stunting of mental/emotional growth
• too thin, not within normal weight range for age and gender
• alcohol/drug abuse by parents/care givers
• Parents/care givers often (but not always) have low education and income
• Physical abuse see also Spanking
• emotional withdrawal/distance
• over aggressive behavior
• distinctively shaped scars, most especially:
• any second-degree burn associated with stoves, fire or boiling water
• belt buckles
• genital modification and mutilation
• circumference burns without splash burns
• cigarette/cigar burns
• spirals (as in a typical stovetop burner)
• whips (and similar objects)
• temper tantrums/violence
• parental refusal of needed medical care
• child seems afraid of parents/care givers
• bullying of other children
• alcohol abuse by parents/care givers
• Shaken baby syndrome
• Sexual abuse see also Age of consent
• emotional withdrawal/distance
• injured vagina or anus
• semen in the vagina or anus
• parental refusal of needed medical care
• unusually early preoccupation with sex
• Isolation and over protection see also Munchausen_syndrome_by_proxy
• emotional withdrawal/distance
• shyness; few, if any, friends
• stunting of mental/emotional growth
• excelling at school in younger years, then gradually doing poorly in the teen years
• failure to look people in the eye
• temper tantrums/anger/violence directed only at parents/care givers (otherwise very well-behaved)
• speech and language difficulties
• fearful and afraid of new relationships
• lack of sexual interest (e.g. dating) for boys (with respect to age, cultural, and religious beliefs)
• procrastination as the child becomes older and more independent
• unable to take care of self with respect to age
• being bullied by other children
• child rarely seen in public (except possibly school)
• parents/care givers often (but not always) well educated
• greater risk if family resides in outlying suburban or rural area
• Related to non-natural (e.g. adoption, foster, step) parenting
• parent(s) compare their child to a "perfect" biological child
• parent(s) believe their child has some sort of genetic defect, but are vague on specific details
• common childhood problems (e.g. bed wetting, shyness, etc.) are blamed on child's heredity
• one parent (often father) does not love his/her non-biological child(ren), but pretends to care to appease spouse
• sexual abuse of child solely because they are not biologically related ("this isn't really incest")
• asexual couple adopts child and remains silent and negative on all sexual matters
• pretending to be the child's biological parents or saying nothing to child regarding their adoption in infancy
• constant, extreme, or false criticism of child's biological parents, regardless of whether the child knows them or not
• uneven fairness in a family involving a mixture of biological and non-biological children
• parent (often mother) wants child to be her "baby" forever; child not independent enough relative to age