In response to your peers, provide thoughtful feedback on responses to the questions about the Sloan family. Draw connections to similar thoughts and plans you may have identified and discuss differences in your responses and perspectives.
1. Domestic violence, neglect, and child abuse can be caused by a variety of factors, including socioeconomic considerations, cultural norms, and personal traits. The risk of domestic violence, for instance, may be increased by a history of domestic violence, lack of education, or lack of culture that supports violence as a means of resolving problems. Neglect and child abuse can be caused by poverty as well (Schilling, 2014).
The father’s background indicates a history of physical and emotional abuse, which may have increased his risk of becoming an abusive parent. The father’s own experience of abuse may have contributed to his lack of empathy and understanding of his child’s experience. The father’s lack of understanding of his child’s experience, as well as his ability to provide a safe and nurturing environment for his child, and the father’s mental health issues of being depressed and anxiety, may have increased his being an abusive parent (Schilling, 2014).
A variety of factors can cause physical abuse, such as a lack of social support and a history of substance abuse.
The family’s strengths or protective factors are the mother’s concern for her child’s well-being and willingness to seek help. Her willingness to seek help may have prevented the abuse from occurring for an extended period. The fact that the family has a stable home environment and access to medical care may have also helped to prevent further harm to the child.
I would feel very concerned for the welfare of the child. I would likely try to help the child by reporting the abuse to the appropriate authorities and providing emotional support to the family of the child. Physical abuse is a complex issue that can have severe and long-term effects on the physical, emotional, and psychological well-being of a child.
What are the dynamics in this family that put them at risk for abuse?
In this family, there are several dynamics that put them at risk of abuse. The father was abused as a child. This history of abuse may increase the father’s risk of becoming an abusive parent. The parent’s lack of education and employment opportunities may also have increased their stress level and decreased their ability to provide a safe environment for their child.
Socioeconomic status can play a role in this family because the family’s financial situation may have limited their access to resources that could have helped them prevent the abuse. The family may have had difficulty affording medical care or lived in a neighborhood with limited access to social services.
2. Hello, everyone. Dominic is a six-year-old child placed with Lucia and Frances as their adopted child. The dynamics that put this family at risk for abuse are their busy lives and Francis’s addiction to opioids; drug abuse is a risk factor. The casual factors are environmental. Their environment is not healthy. The risk factors for the father‘s background were that he got neglected by his father, which caused Francis to be abusive to his child. The current risk factors for abuse were that the parents were too occupied with their own lives to give the love and affection the child needed, and his needs were ignored. I think the child got targeted because “abusive parents have carried into their adulthood the unmet needs of their own childhoods; they exhibit low self-esteem, excessive dependency, a failure to meet the challenges of parenting, unrealistic expectations of their children, role reversal with their children, and impulsivity moreover parents abusing, children are frequently working out their own developmental conflicts” (Crosson-Tower, C. (2021). The family’s strength is Lucia, who rushed the six-year-old to the hospital to seek help, which may have saved the child’s life and helped with future abuse. If these parents were friends of mine, I would feel concerned about the child, and if I suspected child abuse, I would contact Child Protective Services. I would hate to have to call them because they were friends of mine. However, the child is more important.
I would try to be there for the family to offer advice like substance abuse counseling or family counseling. This is a concerning case of a child who has been abused and has been taken to the hospital numerous times, and finally, an investigation follows. Socioeconomic factors are that they are not living in poverty, so poverty is not the cause of abuse in this situation; substance abuse, neglect, and physical abuse are all issues. In this case, the father is abusive to Dominic. Abuse is non-accidental. “Particular children may be at higher risk for abuse than others, while parental traits and life circumstances as well as family systems may also present risk as well as protective factors” (Crosson-Tower, C. (2021). Even though Lucia‘s business was flourishing, there were issues in the house that caused problems for the child. Why did Francis put up with this and buy her husband‘s opioids, and why did it take her so long to help her child, and what factors play a role in this situation?
