Summary Of The Memoir 'Glass Castle'

The memoir “Glass Castle” covers a variety of serious concerns that affect any modern society. One of these concerns is child abuse. Child abuse is defined as any deliberate action taking against a child by an adult. These actions may be be physical violence, emotional or verbal abuse, refusal to meet a child's basic needs and even sexual molestation. There is much debate as to what exactly could turn someone, particularly a parent, to cause harm to child. However, a general consensus is that a few basic factors can increase the risk. Among these are mental health issues, substance abuse, lack of support and socioeconomic stress. Of all of these, socioeconomic stress is the most prominent cause of child abuse. This stress is often seen in a
form of of a lack of support from loved ones, poverty and a lack of basic needs, and drug abuse, all of which can contribute to child abuse. The reasons someone would abuse their child are as infinite as the ways the abuse might manifest itself. There are many stressors that an adult faces on a regular basis. Personal problems, taxes, work troubles, and the stress that come from raising a child are just a few. Social problems that arise within the nuclear family, and within the extended family can destroy someone's entire view on family and what it means. If a parent is not receiving any love or positive output from any family members, they may not feel like they should put out any care for their children. Both family and friends, or lack thereof can greatly influence an adult's. Some people claim that “sole parent status and the number of children per household were the most frequently observed correlates of child neglect and/or abuse.” (Weatherburn and Lind 6). Raising a child is difficult enough for two parents, but the lack of a second caregiver or having to look after too many children can make a tremendous impact on someone’s parenting style. While many social problems can contribute to higher levels of stress that can lead to subsequent child abuse, economic problems can be just as devastating, if not more so. Any monetary hardships a family faces can dramatically change how someone can raise their children. If the family does not possess enough money to buy food, clothes and other necessities, the family is already struggling. In these times, stress levels of the parents are already too high, but having to look after children in poverty is often too much. In an analysis of the studies conducted by Harris and Marmer, it has been said that “They also found that when families received welfare, mothers were less likely to be behaviourally involved with their children” (Bronwyn and Lind 6). Drawing a conclusion from this, it can be determined that economically struggling families, particularly families in severe economic distress, child abuse or neglect is more common. The American Humane Association has determined that 62.8 percent of all reported child abuse is neglect, while Physical abuse only makes up for 16.6% . (American Humane Association). Child abuse is more often than not actually consists of only neglect rather than deliberate abuse. A parent drowning in financial problems, debt, or poverty will almost always be preoccupied with returning to a stable economic state, and not without reason. A parent going through such problems will often work more, or even take up new jobs. This means that the parent is spending more time working, and naturally spending less time with their children. Many people believe that some statistics regarding economic status and child abuse or neglect are biased. These people claim that a large reason why lower income families report more child abuse is because they are prone to more contact with officials. Whether these officials are government officials talking to them about their status, health workers or friends
, families in poverty are under more surveillance than families that are well off financially.
However, many studies that have been conducted have taken this into consideration and have excluded official records from their research. In doing so, they have avoided any biases and used information that they themselves have concluded. Bronwyn and Lind summarized their findings saying “a relationship between economic stress and the level of nurturance toward children can be found among studies which rely on self-report or direct observation of families for information about parental behaviour rather than on official records. (Bronwyn and Lind 2) Self sufficient studies are done at the same rate, if not more frequently as official government investigations. It is the unofficial records that speak the most on child abuse issues and statistics. One of the first of these such studies was the California based study after the Great Depression. It found that “The behaviour of parents toward their children was assessed through personal interviews designed , among other things , to rate parental behaviour o n four dimensions (rejecting , exploiting , indifferent , positive) . Paternal behaviour was significantly correlate d with elevated levels of paternal rejection and indifference and lowered levels of paternal support both for sons and daughters . Economic loss appeared to have less effect on maternal than paternal behaviour” (Bronwyn and Lind
3) Yet another conclusion to be drawn is that poverty can lead to substance abuse, and substance abuse can lead to poverty. Getting caught with possession of illegal substances often results in incarceration, which can make it harder to get or maintain a higher paying job when they are released. This can often lead to lower incomes due to unemployment or a minimum wage job. Alternatively, becoming addicted to any substance can be extremely costly, and then lead to poverty. Conversely, those who live in lower income areas or are homeless are often exposed to the drug underworld, and can very easily become addicted. In his chapter of a larger volume of works related to substance abuse and poverty, Robert Kaestner argues that substance use and abuse often occurs before marriage or children. (Kaestner 329). “Parents who who are addicted or otherwise frequently abuse drugs or alcohol are significantly more likely to abuse or neglect their children. The American Humane Association has concluded that substance abusing parents are 2.7 times more likely to abuse their children and 4.2 times more likely to neglect them. Child abuse has an infinite amount of possible causes, but many of them can be tied to socioeconomic stress. Whether it is a lack of support from others, poverty, or drug abuse, socioeconomic stress summarizes all of them. While a plethora of unrelated causes can trigger an abusive incident, the majority is caused by social and financial problems.