Psychological violence against children

The topic of my thesis is a study of how parents and primary school teachers perceive and identify psychological abuse of children. Psychological abuse is an especially sensitive area because children do not perceive interpersonal relations and activities in their environment in the same way as adults. Children also do not possess the physical or psychological power required to withstand or defend themselves against different forms of violence, abuse and harassment. Children who are the victims of psychological abuse are often withdrawn, quiet, introvert or, quite the opposite, become aggressive themselves, especially towards their peers. In the theoretical part of my thesis I define psychological abuse, outline the forms of such behaviour in the family and at school, and describe the consequences of psychological abuse, including legislative. The empirical part contains data analysis of the perception of psychological abuse, collected with a questionnaire that was completed by 76 parents and teachers of primary school pupils. The results show that both parents and teachers are aware of psychological abuse of children but are not able to identify all its forms. Most of the parents and teachers who took part in the survey consider bullying as the most severe form of psychological abuse. Most teachers believe that children are most often psychologically abused by their parents. Because psychological abuse of children is a part of our everyday lives, I strongly believe we should not ignore it no matter what. A teacher-to-be myself, I was unpleasantly surprised of the results of my study which show that only a quarter of all the respondents would take action and file a report if they found out that a child was a victim of psychological abuse