The intergenerational transfer of child abuse

Abstract

The consequences of child abuse on the body and mind of the victims were examined closely through analysis of previous studies and interviews of professionals of abused children. This study attempted to understand the consequences of this trauma in relation to the reproduction of the abusive behaviour later in life, in order to identify the reason why some abused children become perpetrators. The respondents to this study were asked to explain through their experience the implications of the abuse for the victims' lives, and the factors that played a role in reproducing the abuse. The themes identified were sociological, psychological, biological and psychiatric; those fields of studies are linked together in explaining the intergenerational transfer of child abuse. Moreover, the means for prevention were also analysed. Results shown that through incidental learning, children reproduce their parent's behaviour by accrediting it as acceptable. Emotional attachment is turned into a defence mechanism when the children are abused, and all future emotional encounters are modelled by the earliest one, leaving the growing adult to become impermeable to other people's feelings. A hereditary factor also plays a role in the intergenerational transfer, for the child shares some features with its aggressor. The brain encounters some changes after a heavy trauma in childhood, leading to a disrupted development. Eventually, psychopathologies both from the side of the aggressor and developed by the victim could be the cause for the intergenerational transfer. Those results contributed to understand the mind of abused children, in order to prevent them from becoming aggressors.