Title: Why Parents Target a Specific Child for Abuse
Headings: Why Parents Target a Specific Child for Abuse
Why Parents Target a Specific Child for Abuse
Content: We know that some children are more at risk for abuse than others. A child with poor cognitive skills and who exhibits behavioural problems is at significant risk for child abuse. Other risk factors for children and youth include their sexual orientation and a disability. Children who have a dependency for personal care for such disabilities as the inability to see, hear, move, communicate, dress, toilet or bathe themselves independently are more vulnerable to rough, careless or intrusive care, or neglect of their personal needs. An American study found that parents are almost twice as likely to abuse a child with a disability as without a disability. Other studies reveal that people with disability are up to 5 times more likely to be abused than the general population. By and large, society has no problem accepting that fathers are capable of harming their children. Men have had to deal with this unfounded societal bias since the beginning of time. There is a preconception that because boys are more physical and display anger more readily, they are somehow predisposed to violence against children when they become adults. But statistics reflect that women use physical abuse more than men.