Childhood emotional abuse in Malta : a professional perspective

Abstract

Childhood emotional abuse occurs when young persons’ expressive and emotional needs such as affection and acknowledgment are not met by the child’s biological parents and/or primary caregivers. This may occur because of weak parenting skills or lack of emotional expression from the parents who may under-respond to their child’s emotional needs, which in turn could cause psychological harm either deliberately or else by oversight. Such negligence could be owed to the fact that some parents may experience personal difficulties such as; unstable relationships, socio-economic short comings and/or parental conflict resulting in an unintentional parental failure, as consequence, emotional neglect could substantially affect the child’s development well into maturity. This study attempts to explore and comprehend the probable causes of child emotional abuse in Malta, and whether there is a link between child emotional abuse and the onset of juvenile delinquency. The semi-structured interviews with professionals in the field of psychology, social work, probations and parole combined with literature published by Bowlby (1969, 1973, & 1982) Attachment and Loss, and Farrington, et al., (2006) The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, serve to better support the expert’s opinions that children who are exposed to stressful and insecure environments could be prone to suffer from anxiety, a likely risk factor that could motivate some juveniles to exhibit delinquent behaviour. In sum by means of expert accounts and academic literature the researcher comes to the conclusion that in fact the correlation between abusive environments that produce regular childhood emotional abuse to the onset of juvenile delinquency is strong. Therefore the researcher feels that by offering practical suggestions based on the study’s findings may help assist to educate parents rather than punish them, since education aims to instil positive parenting practices to raise children in a healthy environment.