Violent Societies, Violent Lives: Identifying Public Health Response

Violent Societies, Violent Lives: Identifying the Public Health Response
Student’s Name
Name of the Class
Professor’s Name
City
State
Date
Violent Societies, Violent Lives: Identifying the Public Health Response
Family Violence
The existence of family violence alleviates the widely-held phenomenon of a home as a place that provides psychological and physical safety and security. Such events mean that the child, adult, or elder has a hidden experience of ‘homelessness.’ The term family violence is used to refer to “all forms of abuse that occur in familial relationships, whether it be physical, sexual, financial/economic, emotional/psychological, verbal, spiritual or involves the neglect of someone’s needs” (Tyysak & Saran, 2013, p. 2). Every family member in the family is affected although children, women, and the elderly people are identified as the major victims of these acts (Lourenco et al., 2013, p. 264). Family violence has significant and more importantly, adverse health effects to its members and thus, there is a need to identify these consequences and mitigate their prevalence.
Children are exposed to these circumstances in different ways. Children can witness the abuse by either hearing the escalating and intense movements and sounds or being present in the room that the relative actions are taking place. Afterward, children are highly traumatized and in related circumstances, their pain could be vented to others or turned inward. Victimized children exhibit various emotional and behavioral problems. They exhume high levels of oppositional behavior, hostility, anger, and aggression. Emotionally, they get depressed, anxious, fearful, and withdrawn. Their cognitive levels are also affected as they encounter decreased attention span, lower cognitive thinking, and inability to establish conflict resolutions (Taylor, 2019, p. 7). The strength of the family institutions hinges upon how children are raised. Thus, damaging children at that age implies the ability to create a formidable community (which is a consequence of strong families) is at stake.
On the other hand, women report a wide range of mental and physical health challenges that arise from lifetime encounters of the partner or sexual violence. The physical and sexually violent acts have been consistently associated with chronic pain, gastrointestinal disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and gynecological disorders (Chhabra, 2018, p. 4). Women’s physical problems and symptoms of poor health are more apparent in those that have been victims than those who have not been abused. Also, women victims happen to spend most of their time in bed concerning ordinary women. At times, women in family violence are associated with high post-traumatic disorder, phobias, anxiety, depression, psychiatric problems, alcohol, and drug abuse as well as suicidality. Most of the mental consequences are experienced by every one of them on a global scale. On the other hand, there are unique complications for pregnant women as reported in a study involving 1,203 expectant females. Results indicated that family violence was much more likely to result in anemia, infections, low maternal weight gain, and low birth weight (Chhabra, 2018, p. 4). Family violence alleviates the motherly nature that is needed in raising the best family possible.
Men are the least affected victims when it comes to family violence. Naturally, men have stronger genetics to handle the extremities of such circumstances, but that does not imply that their concerns should be disregarded. They deserve to be given as much attention because the issue at hand affects them too. For them, this is a traumatic event that leads to psychological disorders. Individuals in this state are likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD). Besides, they resort to alcohol and drug abuse as a coping mechanism (Douglas & Hines, 2011, p. 4). Sometimes men are isolated from their families. This situation compels them to live away from their children, which escalates the nature of emotional distress at play. It is in these circumstances that one will find men getting depressed and gaining much anxiety over life.
A less familiar and discussed topic is that of elderly people who are also victims of family violence and thus, health-based adverse consequences befall them too. In most circumstances, these individuals are victims because of their dependence on other people for their survival. These individuals are likely to suffer from actual physical injuries such as burns, fractures, lacerations, and bruises. When neglected, the elderly could encounter decubitus ulceration and malnutrition. Similar to other family members, they experience psychological challenges such as an elevated sense of powerlessness, fear of abuser’s retaliation, and shame.
Theories that Endear to Explain Family Violence
Family Violence Perspective
The family violence theory is also known as family system theory. First and foremost, the family institution is regarded as the one with the greatest in determining an individual’s character. The ensuing character translates to the behavior that the person elicits. This social aspect is gained from the values that the family instills in its children thereby determining their behavior towards the overall society. A child’s perception of their immediate surrounding is highly shaped by the family. The theory posits that the family, when coupled with social situation, will lead to the resultant violent behavior. Consequently, both men and women possess equal position to be either perpetrators or victims in family violence. Nevertheless, there is the case for an individual’s biological make-up meaning that hormonal factors could play a major part in this case. In this regard, gender symmetry comes into play. Many researchers have seconded this theory claiming that gender-type could play a major role in initiating family violence. Personality characteristics determining the intra-psychic determinants that could influence into creating, participating, or walking from any potential war that could arise. Other risk factors include financial stress, high expectations, disobedience, and misunderstandings.
Based on the discussion above, one can ascertain the prominent theoretical model that influences this perspective. For instance, the social learning theory as formulated by Bandura. Bandura’s view plus the intergenerational transmission of partner violence project a sense of modeling and imitation whereby if these people fail to learn conflict control tactics, then the entire situation could escalate quickly. This position justifies the reason many partner violence incidences are predominant among parents or children who grew up in an unpleasant environment. Such individuals encountered possible child abuse, which resulted in high levels of acceptance and tolerance for family violence (Bell & Naugle, 2008, p. 1104). This assertion arrives from several related studies with most of the people involved in the circus possessing much aggressiveness. Since the family is a hi...