2023-11-25 18:02:00
Violence has serious consequences for physical and mental health and detonates the well-being of girls and boys, and their communities (Illustrative Image Infobae)
The psychological and social disorders and problems that boys and girls present due to gender violence are not being adequately addressed in almost any country in the world. The invisibility of gender violence against children re-victimizes them. Sons and daughters who suffer from gender violence experience continuous and prolonged situations of abuse of power, humiliation, and attacks of all kinds; experiences that will mark their development, personality, behavior and values in adulthood.
The impact of violence on children’s brain development is especially worrying, especially when exposure to violence is prolonged. Consequences of violence include depression, post-traumatic stress disorders, borderline personality disorders, anxiety, substance abuse, sleep and eating disorders, suicide and suicide attempts.
The impact of violence on mental health is not the same throughout life; at the beginning of life it deeply hurts the psychic apparatus and these traces last until adulthood. This matrix sustained in fear can be transmitted from one generation to the other.
Prolonged exposure to gender violence in childhood can trigger sleep and eating disorders, depression, and risky behavior (Getty)
The consequences for children’s mental health may vary depending on the form of violence experienced and the environment in which it occurs. Studies have highlighted not only the interconnected nature of different types of victimization and polyvictimization, but also how their cumulative impact can seriously harm child development.
Girls and boys as victims of crimes attributable to gender are invisible in the eyes of public health. According to the Adriana Zambrano Femicide Observatory of the civil association La Casa del Encuentro, between 2012 and 2022, 120 infanticides and femicides of girls were committed. The victims were between months and 12 years old and were killed mostly by their own parents or stepfathers and men in their families by beating them or by using a firearm and/or sharp objects.
Violence has serious consequences for physical and mental health and detonates the well-being of girls and boys, and their communities. Violence has also been linked to a range of mental, physical, sexual and reproductive health problems, including impaired social, emotional and cognitive development, injuries and health problems throughout their lives, as well as the adoption of behavioral high risk such as smoking, alcohol abuse, drugs and unprotected sex.
Gender violence in childhood not only affects children’s mental health, but also perpetuates cycles of generational abuse and trauma (Illustrative Image Infobae)
The consequences of gender violence in childhood can be direct, attacks on themselves or indirectly, when the attack occurs in their presence or they know the consequences on their mother, marks, bruises, hospitalizations, etc. In the cases of boys and girls orphaned by femicide, the psychological consequences are thunderous.
The unavoidable consequence of boys and girls is traumatization, guilt, helplessness, shame, and aggressiveness, and these are just some of the psychological consequences of gender violence suffered in childhood.
About this problem Javier Barreiro, general health psychologist in Salamanca, Spain, says it like this: “They range from physical problems such as delayed growth, alterations in sleep and eating, delay in motor skills; emotional disorders such as anxiety, anger, depression, low self-esteem, post-traumatic stress disorder; cognitive alterations such as language delay, poor school performance; behavioral alterations such as deficits in social skills, aggression, attention deficit and hyperactivity, criminal episodes, toxic-dependent habits, deficits in the development of empathy.
Physical, sexual and emotional violence against children is an alarming reality that requires immediate attention and preventive measures (Getty)
Gender studies are essential not only for the understanding of extreme and punishable macro-violence such as infanticide, femicide in childhood, sexual violence and abuse, but also for the understanding of everyday micro-violence. A shakedown, humiliation, discredit, ridicule, disapproval, lack of respect that pierce self-esteem often permanently.
Gender studies were initially associated with the issue of women and later reached men and the LGBTQ+ population. Today it is essential to extend their contributions to addressing the issues of childhood and adolescence, also with regard to mental health.
The adult-centric view and adultist practices organize the power relations and the particularities of a society built in a patriarchal way.
Boys and girls who witness gender violence often internalize aggression and fear, which affects their behavior and future relationships (Illustrative Image Infobae)
From the moment we are born, differential places are organized and assigned for both boys and girls. This sociocultural matrix is where roles, permissions and prohibitions and even what is authorized to desire or not desire are defined. Although these dispositions undergo epochal changes, what remains eternal are the asymmetries between the adult and masculine and the infantile world. This configures what has been called an adult-centric and patriarchal order.
This structure establishes a way of being and being in the world that is specifically regulated by age and gender. Attacks against children is one of the permissions included in those who hold authority, that is, power.
Boys and girls have been subjects treated as a disposable minority throughout the history of humanity and never recognized as subjects of right and desire and therefore victims of the crudest violence.
Gender violence in childhood shapes an adult-centric and patriarchal order, affecting the way boys and girls perceive the world (Getty Images)
Violence against girls and boys includes physical, sexual and emotional violence, as well as abandonment, neglect and exploitation. These assaults can occur at home and in the community and be perpetrated by caregivers, peers, or strangers. Types of violence include abuse by adults in a position of responsibility today; bullying and physical fights between peers; sexual violence and dating violence, as well as violence on the street or at school.
In the case of girls, it is from the age of 7 that violence begins to be redirected. For example, sexual violence grows exponentially as girls develop. Many femicides in childhood occur to hide a primary crime, sexual violence.
According to the Pan American Health Organization, worldwide, 1 in 2 girls and boys between 2 and 17 years old suffer some type of violence each year. According to a global review, it is estimated that 58% of girls and boys in Latin America and 61% in North America suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse in the last year.
Childhood abuse and neglect often go unnoticed, but its effects on mental and physical health are profound and long-lasting (Illustrative Image Infobae)
According to United Nations Women, every 11 minutes a woman is murdered in the world. This figure shows that violence against women and girls is the global and most naturalized type of violence in the world.
Gender violence is manifested through various practices from birth and in childhood it is a double violation.
Addressing gender violence and adultcentrism with a comprehensive view requires the examination of power structures, cultural norms and education from a gender and childhood perspective. Childhood is the first link where patriarchy hits with all its force and the emotional, social and economic costs are high and often lifelong.
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