• Child abuse is a problem that is reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S. The website Childhelp.org reports that more than three million calls about child abuse are made each year in this country. It is serious enough for both individual states and the federal government to have a hand in establishing laws pertaining to it. For example, in 1974 the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was passed by Congress. It defined child abuse as any parental or caregiver act or failure to act resulting in the death of, serious physical injury or emotional harm to, or sexual abuse or exploitation of a child or children. Many in society who question why child abuse occurs can find their answers in three widely-known and accepted theories.
  
  

Parental Situations

• No child can choose his or her parents. Most people believe that how a child is parented is a good predictor of how he will raise his own children. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families points out, however, that there is actually a weak link between adults who were abused as children becoming abusers of their own offspring. The government estimates that only 10 to 40 percent of abusive parents have experienced physical abuse themselves as children.
  
  There are particular situations that are believed to push parents into becoming perpetrators. These include if they are young or single, didn't graduate from high school or grew up in severely dysfunctional homes. Adults who use drugs, alcohol or suffer from depression or schizophrenia are seen as more likely to abuse their children. Parents who are out of work, who are homeless, who live in high-crime areas, who are teenagers themselves or who are unwilling parents often become perpetrators. Interviews with abusive parents find that they can have unrealistic expectations of how their infant or child should behave, resulting in abuse.
  
  

Children with Special Needs

• Taking care of a child born with special needs, or one identified in the first few years of life with a medical or emotional problem, can be extremely stressful for some parents and caregivers. These situations can involve everything from premature infants and colicky babies to children who are chronically ill, mentally retarded or exhibiting behavioral problems.
  
  Parents of children like this often feel annoyed by the children or ashamed of them, viewing them as "different" from other children. In some cases, caring for a special needs child is so overwhelming to the parents that they lash out in anger. Additionally, the bonding process between parents and child may be disrupted if the youngster doesn't respond to affection or is separated from his parents by repeated hospitalizations.
  
  

Parents with Violent Histories

• The cycle of abuse can begin even before a child is born if the mother is a drug or alcohol abuser or simply fails to get appropriate prenatal health care during her pregnancy. Those parents who fall within that estimated 10 to 40 percent whose childhood abuse compels them to be abusers can create their own violent households, simply accepting it as the way a family operates. Discipline for these parents equals violent, often frequent, expressions of anger. Burdensome financial problems and unemployment on the part of one or both of the parents can create tension and frustration which is then taken out on the children.
  
  

How Child Abuse Affects a Child

• There are two kinds of child abuse. Physical abuse leaves the youngster with bruises, broken bones or worse. The other kind, emotional abuse, leaves the child physically intact, but hurt on the inside. This type of abuse includes neglectful parents who ignore a child's needs or who leave them in unsupervised and potentially dangerous situations and critical parents who undermine a child's self-esteem. Both kinds of abuse cut the child's self-worth deeply which transfers to adulthood. Most abused children become adults who suffer from low self-esteem and an inability to trust and who have difficulty handling their emotions. This toxic combination can lead to drug or alcohol dependence, tendency toward violence and difficulty establishing and maintaining good relationships. Interviews with adult survivors of child abuse reveal they often struggle with unexplained feelings of anxiety, depression and anger.