By Firstpost., August 20, 2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines child maltreatment as the abuse and neglect that occurs to children under 18 years of age and “includes all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation, which results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power".
The long stream of child maltreatment data provided by the WHO indicates that the impact of this type of abuse is immense and multi-generational. The data shows that someone who is abused during childhood is more likely to abuse as an adult. The violence gets passed down from one generation to the next as a vicious cycle of violence. Breaking this cycle is not just necessary to eliminate child maltreatment, but also the lifelong physical and mental health repercussions that a survivor goes on to endure.
A recent UK-based study published in the Journal of Comorbidity throws much-needed light on this lifelong impact of child maltreatment on the physical and mental health of the survivors.
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