Physical Abuse

According to ChildLine publications Physical abuse is the third most common reason that children call the ChildLine number, after bullying and family tensions. ChildLine state that they receive on average, more than two calls per hour about physical abuse, for every hour of the year. This number of youngsters making contact because of Physical Abuse has very serious ramifications for football because with the large amounts of children playing many of these could fall into category of victims.

Definition

Physical abuse includes any form of kicking, striking, punching, scalding, or suffocating and any other ways of inflicting pain, injury and physical discomfort to children. Also included in this definition is giving the child harmful substances (which can be drugs or alcohol or poison) or if the parent or carer fabricates an illness or causes an illness for the child.

There are a number of signs for Physical abuse

Many signs of abuse are obvious to the naked eye such as bruises, black eyes and broken bones. Other signs might include some injuries that the child cannot explain or if they do attempt an explanation seems either unconvincing or made up. Often injuries remain untreated or injuries appear on parts of the body that suggest they happened outside of the physical probability of playing football. Some children if they are being mistreated actually have finger marks from severe squeezing or human bite marks as well as cigarette burns or other burns or scalds. Many children being physically abused attempt to run away and may fear returning home. In order to cover marks children will wear bulky, often unfashionable clothing that is inappropriate for the weather conditions. They often display a fear of medical help or involvement and may be self destructive and aggressive towards others. Individually these signs may, or may not constitute physical abuse but a combination of these may well do so.

Recent NSPCC research has found that 21% of children experience some degree of physical abuse at the hands of their parents or carers and that two-thirds of those children experience ‘intermediate physical abuse’ which they define as occasional or regular violent treatment that may cause pain or marks but does not lead to injury, while one-third suffer more severe physical abuse. Therefore the existence of some type of Physical Abuse is roughly converted to 1 in 5 of our children. What is concerning for us as officials in youth football is that between 2001 and 2005, an average of 6,440 children per year were added to the child protection register in England because of physical abuse. What is even more concerning is that further research indicates that physical abuse is both often under-reported so this % is probably a lot higher.

What would help to clarify this area of abuse and what do you need to be aware of?

Why do people hurt children and do they fall into a certain group?

Research has shown that there is no particular type or group of adults who physically abuse children, they are hurt by adults of all ages, class, sex, race and sexual orientation. There may be certain circumstances that play a significant part in the cause, such as Stress (which may be caused by numerous reasons), or relationship difficulties. This can and does reduce some adults' ability to control aggressive feelings towards their children. Other reasons such as Mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence could effect their ability to meet their children's needs rationally instead of striking out. Parental stress and unhappiness are the key triggers of physical abuse, according to ChildLine callers. Physical abuse often appears in conjunction with other types of abuse. The most obvious example is physical violence used as a way to frighten and control sexually abused children to ensure that they don’t tell anyone of the adults actions. All forms of abuse involve an element of emotional abuse.

What age group should you be concerned with and how long does abuse go on?

UK-wide research shows that physical violence is most commonly suffered by children too young to report the incidents so this actually means that babies and very young children are particularly vulnerable to physical abuse. The recent figures on Child Protection registers show that infants and young children are over-represented on child protection registers and that infants under the age of one are more at risk of being killed at the hands of another person than are people in any other age group. However there remains a very large % of children under 18 who are Physically Abused and we must be fully aware of our responsibilities. The majority of children occurrence rather than a one-off event. Just under 8,000 callers said that the physical
abuse they were suffering had been going on over a considerable length of time.

What signs should we be looking for apart from bruises and marks?

Often there are a number of behavioural signs that a child is being physically abused, and each one or more of the following ways may be an indicator. If a child becomes sad, withdrawn or depressed, has trouble sleeping, or their behaviour changes to become disruptive or aggressive then these signs should be noted. If they appear to lack confidence and exhibit low self esteem and begin to experiment with drugs or alcohol then these also must be taken into consideration.

The Effects on Children

Physical abuse can have long lasting effects on a child's health and development. Physical injury, brain damage and disability are all results of abuse and these often lead to children developing emotional, behavioural or educational problems. These difficulties can continue in adulthood and there is considerable research to suggest that abused children often grow to be abusers themselves. Often people who were physically abused as children may have problems with personal relationships. The child's age, frequency of the abuse and length of abuse will all have severe implications on how much a child will be affected by it in the longer term. Often however a severe isolated incident can affect a child as badly as on-going abuse. Many children will self harm to deal with the abuse and for some children suicide seems the only way to escape their situation.

Implication for Football

Firstly each adult connected with Football needs to be certain that they are not harming their players in any way that can be construed as Physical Abuse. The questions about physical training being appropriate to the development age of the players is often one that is asked and the simple answer is if you are not sure then attend a suitable course, do some research in the area.

Certain established training practices are also questionable and may lead to a situation where the players may be ‘over trained’ the most obvious example being that under 10’s doing shuttle runs to develop their stamina. This is not required, in fact any stamina work should not be introduced until the players are physically able to participate and the stage is generally agreed to be post puberty. The picking up of peers (piggy backs, wheel barrows etc) is not recommended and neither is the practice of ‘punishments’ such as repeated press ups, laps of the pitch or standing on one leg etc. The extreme examples where Physical Abuse can lead to permanent physical, physiological and emotional damage is when drugs are used to delay puberty, control a youngster’s diet or enhance their performance.

Action if you have concerns about the area of Physical Abuse

If at any time you feel that one of your players has been the victim of any form of Physical Abuse that endangers them you must act at once. Remember it is not your role to be either the judge or jury in this matter BUT it certainly is your role to act in the best interests of the player. If you are the Child Protection official for the club you will know already how to handle this situation but if you are not you must report your information to the appropriate person (which could be the Police) or Social Services. Inaction in this area is not an option for any adult, you should write down any concerns with dates and make these available to the correct authority. Many children are abused continually because other adults choose to ignore or excuse the situation when they should have acted.