The Effects of Childhood Abuse
According to two National Family Violence Surveys, approximately 1.5 to 3.3 million
children between the ages of three and seventeen that are exposed to domestic violence each
year (Clark, R., Clark, J., Adamec, C., & Gelles, R., 2007). Whether children are victims or
witnesses of abuse in the home, those experiences have a profound impact on how they
behave in their adult life. This is an especially crucial topic to research and consider, as it
creates awareness to its severity and long-lasting effects as victims and witnesses enter
adulthood. When others are aware, it creates a space for people to speak out and be
vulnerable regarding their experiences. Subsequently, an understanding or explanation can be
drawn for certain behaviors that can be attributed to child abuse and domestic violence, and
even lead to a process of healing.
While I originally found interest in this topic hoping to gain awareness and be proactive
regarding the issue for when I hopefully am one day a mom, it shifted slightly in the process of
researching. I never viewed my childhood, current family setting, or other relationships as
abusive. However, after conducting research I can see how it was in some cases and how the
verbal attacks, whether directly or indirectly, have impacted me today. Regardless, this paper
will not include my testimony or experiences regarding this topic. Instead, it will outline the
effects of child abuse and domestic violence through relevant research, relate back to what
scripture has to say regarding this topic, and describe what some of the implications are for
ministry.
The National Research Council released a report in 1993, Understanding Child Abuse
and Neglect. This report was a stepping stone into further research regarding child abuse, and it
laid the ground work for the book Child Maltreatment Research, Policy, and Practice for the
Next Decade: Workshop Summary which was published in 2012. In this report, it discussed
what they coined as “sensitive periods.” The study portrayed that specifically for women who
endured sexual abuse, depending on what age the abuse occurred at, different areas of their
brain received the greatest impact. From the age of three to five, their hippocampal had the
maximum impact; from nine to ten, it was the corpus callosum; from fourteen to sixteen it was
the prefrontal cortex. The summary went on to explain that because different areas of the brain
were impacted more significantly at some stages than others, it caused some women to have
clinically different outcomes based on those age groups (Olson & Stroud, 2012).
