dog cruelty facts and statistics

a new study finds that emotional abuse isjust as harmful as physical or sexual abuse - so why is no one talking about this? hey guys, tara here for dnews - and anyonewho’s not a complete monster knows just what kind of scars sexual and physical abusecan leave on a child. but something that’s rarely, if ever talked about - is psychologicalabuse. there are no laws against it, no billboards on the side of the highway. and yet the americanacademy of pediatrics says it’s “the most challenging and prevalent form of child abuseand neglect.” so why aren’t we addressing this issue with the same fervency we giveto other more, visible kinds of abuse? well, part of that may be a simple lack ofawareness. until now, most of the studies

on this subject, have specifically lookedat the long-term effects of sexual or physical abuse. but according to a new study, childrenwho are emotionally abused or neglected can develop similar and sometimes even worse mentalhealth problems than kids who are sexually or physically abused. for this study, researchers analyzed datafrom 5,616 children with lifetime histories of physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychologicalmaltreatment, or a combination thereof. maltreatment in this case was defined as either abuse orneglect inflicted by a caretaker - so things like bullying, threats, severe insults, isolation,etc. what they found, is that a staggering numberof children - 62% - had a history of psychological

maltreatment, and 24% of the cases they studied,were exclusively related to psychological maltreatment. they also found that children who were victimsof psychological maltreatment, suffered from anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, post-traumaticstress disorder, and suicidal tendencies - at the same rate - and in some cases, an evengreater rate - than children who were physically or sexually abused. especially worrisome, is the fact that ofthe three kinds of abuse, psychological maltreatment specifically has the highest association withdepression, anxiety, attachment issues, and substance abuse. so clearly, this is not anissue we should just be brushing off.

according to the us children’s bureau, nearly3 million u.s. children experience some form of maltreatment every year. but as the leadauthor of this study, joseph spinazzola, points out - there are no physical wounds associatedwith psychological abuse. so child protective case workers have a particularly hard timerecognizing it. he also brings up the point that emotionalabuse just doesn’t carry the same social taboo as physical or sexual abuse, even thoughit’s equally, if not more, damaging to a child’s mental health. as such, our primarygoal, he says, should be to implement more public awareness initiatives to “help peopleunderstand just how harmful psychological maltreatment is for children and adolescents.”

while we’re on the topic of children, iwanna remind all of you guys watching this, that i host another show here at discoverycalled testtube - that’s a lot like dnews, but more geared towards current events. yesterdayi did an episode on the secret pro-life agenda of crisis pregnancy centers[a], and how manyof them have been deliberately misleading women with false information and facts aboutabortions. so if you’d like to learn more about that topic, just head over to youtube.com/testtubenetwork.