The Impact of Childhood Maltreatment on Children’s Cognitive Development

PART 1:

This project is not revised. I am writing the project proposal for the first time.

PART 2:

Child mistreatment is a diversified occurrence that potentially results in poor children's development across different growth attributes, specifically cognitive development. Yoon et al. (2021) defined child mistreatment as a blend of negative environments that a child is exposed to during the growth process. These environments include and are not limited to sexual abuse, physical abuse (such as being beaten), being denied health care services, emotionally and psychologically challenging environment, as well as lack of general basic needs. In a situation where any of these negative growth environments exist, a child is considered to be exposed to child mistreatments, mainly where their parents, guardians, or society can provide better for the wellbeing of the children.

The idea of growth and development among children is broad and wide, and its elements have the behavior of interdependency. Yoon et al. (2021) cite several reasons why minors' abuse and neglect are bad for growth and development. Among the reasons cited, history of abuse stands out because it can potentially make children replicate the same behavior when they grow only. In a research study conducted by Toth and Manly (2019) to understand the trend and consequences of childhood abuse and neglect revealed that adults who mistreat their children have a high chance of having experienced a similar magnitude of abuse or neglect when they were young. For this reason, children's growth and wellbeing heavily rely upon the nature of the environment they are exposed to when young.

It is impossible to talk about development among children from a research perspective without discussing cognitive development. Toth and Manly (2019) define cognitive development as the process through which children learn how to think clearly, solve basic daily challenges relevant to their age, and even develop complex skills. At a tender age, children have the ability to learn faster and retain the knowledge more permanently. It is, therefore, very important to eliminate negative environments that are likely to impose a bad memory on children while growing up (Hong, Rhee, & Piescher, 2018). The development of cognitive skills can be affected by many factors, mainly general mistreatment, which this study aims to investigate.

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