Case Study on the book ” Push” by sapphire

Case Study: “Push” By Sapphire
Summary of the “Push”
“Push,” tells the story of a young black girl who is exposed to abuse and mistreatment. Claireece “Precious” Jones has her first child at the age of twelve, which follows a repeated raping by her father. Her father began sexually abusing her while she was only three years old. She also falls victim to her mother’s sexual and physical abuse at quite a tender age. A precious mother is a narcissistic person who only thinks about herself who directs her anger towards Precious. The father is an absent figure and only comes around to satisfy his sexual urge. Despite being the age of sixteen, Precious does not know how to read and write. Precious’ second pregnancy gets her suspended from school. Her principal approaches her and recommends that she attend an alternative school where she will be able to continue school (Sapphire, 1996).
Precious mom is opposed to Precious going back to school because she wants her daughter to continue caring for her as they get public aid support. However, Precious joins the alternative school in the hope to obtain her General Educational Development. Attending an alternative school was the best thing that happens to Precious. She obtains a support system due to the mentorship and guidance from Ms. Rains, and her classmates. Precious resilien to have a better life for her child andhelp her learn to read and write. Precious even attends a support system for children abused by a family member. Precious has dreams and inspiration to go to college.

She starts to question everything after she learns that her father infected her with HIV. The book ends without knowing what the future has in store for precious (Sapphire, 1996).
Synthesis of the text to course material
Historically, one of the biggest social problems has been the child maltreatment that has existed for decades. Unfortunately, there has been less focus on child abuse due to the media majorly focusing on physical and sexual forms of abuse. As this happens, other forms are left behind like child neglect, which remains the common form of child abuse (Stokes, & Taylor, 2014). From the course material, child abuse and neglect are quite a common occurrence in the American society. Child abuse is dated back in the ancient times to early America when the rights of children were never protected, and any efforts to do so were questionable. The duty to protect the child from abuse starts with the immediate persons including the parents, guardians, and teachers. In extreme cases where the parents could not manage child abuse, there are agencies given authority to provide Child Protective Services (CPS) (Chapter 4. Child Abuse, 82). Child abuse allegations in the years before the 1970s were ignored, with investigations being carried out in cases deemed very serious or those in which death occurred. The investigation was often left to a female matron as opposed to the police. This, in turn, sends a very strong message to law enforcers attention on child abuse, not their concern because it was more of a family problem. Therefore, the failure to protect the child is a common thing like the case of Precious as presented in the book “Push” by Sapphire.
Forms of abuse
Child abuse takes different forms ranging from sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional or psychological, educational, medical and neglect (Tran, Van Brazil, van Iskenderun, & Link, 2017). All of these forms of child maltreatment affect the physical, emotional and the cognitive functioning of the particular child affected. Physical abuse involves hitting, slapping, burning, poisoning a child and denial of basic needs. On the other hand, emotional abuse takes the form of causing some injury to the child’s emotional stability and the mental capacity, which may be indicated by the change of behavior of the child (Chapter 4. Child Abuse. 92). Educational abuse comes with the child’s denial of basic education by anyone close to the child including parents, guardians, and teachers who either fail to enroll the child in education or teach them. All these forms of child abuse are portrayed in the book “Push” where Precious in second grade is having accidents in the classroom and not going to the restroom. The teacher is more concern of her floor that asking herself why Precious is doing this behavior. Precious also shows signs of having a learning disability which is not a concern to the teacher or the parents. She is based from one grade to other without getting the help need to learn to read and write (Sapphire, 1996). She has emotional problems that affect her performance as well as the cognitive functioning problem that affects her learning capacity.
Child abuse victims and the perpetrators
Younger children are said to be the most vulnerable group of minors, with up to a third of children who are victims of abuse being those aged less than four years (Stokes, & Taylor, 2014). Researchers have associated the vulnerability of the children to maltreatment citing various reasons. Among the reasons cited include the fact that children are the most dependent group with the majority of them depending on their parents for care and protection. However, the unfortunate thing comes in when neither the two parents nor anyone cares or protects the child. In some situations where a parent takes up the responsibility of caring for the child, such a parent is too busy working to provide for the children that he or she lacks time to be with the child. In the most unfortunate situation is when the parents decide not to care and instead mistreats the child who ends up undergoing the mentioned forms of abuse (Gosselin, 2013). The family characteristics of parental-child relationship are common in any family like in the case of the family of Claireece “Precious” Jones. Her parents have forsaken the duty of care and protection and have reserved to mistreating her.
According to the statistics, up to 90% of children who are abused know the perpetrators in one way or another. A lot of child neglect and abuse cases are perpetrated by either one parent or even both parents. Additionally, up to 68% of the victims report being abused by family members (Stokes, & Taylor, 2014). Unfortunately, due to the closeness and the possible lack of evidence, child abuses committed by familiar abusers do not see the light of prosecution as already indicated (Gosselin, 2013). It is because of such reasons that the main perpetrators have persistently been the familiar person like in the case of Precious where the main abusers was her father and mother (Sapphire, 1996).
Are there services?
Neglect as a concept is said to be predicated on the duty of parents to provide their children with the most basic needs because they cannot provide for themselves. Apart from ensuring that their children have decent shelter, clothing, and food, parents are also expected to ensure educational opportunities and facilitate medical care for their children (Friedman, & Billick, 2015). When parents or guardians fail to provide the children under their care with food, shelter, clothing, supervision or medical care to the extent that the child’s well-being, safety, and health comes under threat, the parents or guardians can be termed as negligent (Friedman, & Billick, 2015). Precious’ parent’s description of negligent for they fail in ensuring that their child is protected from any neglect.
Effects of child abuse
Researchers have been able to relate different forms of child abuse to the psychological and emotional functioning of the child. For instance, child sexual abuse directly affects the mental health of the child such as increasing the risk of depression, stress, anxiety and low self- esteem in adulthood. Child abuse as well has been linked to the poor cognitive function such as poor working memory which might have effects on the academic performance of the child (Tran, Van Berkel, van IJzendoorn, & Link 2017). All these effects are depicted to the young girl Precious in book “Push” by Sapphire. She seems upset, stressed and anxious about things in her life. However, physiological effects are most featured in the book text. In chapter five of the child abuse textbook, the author presents some of the physiological effects associated with the child abuse. The short-term physiological effects include bruises, cuts, and even death (Chapter 5. Child Abuse,111). Though they are short-term, they cause much pain to the child being abused. The short-term physiological effects are in line with what is seen in the book “Push” where Precious mother exposes her to physical torture leaving her sustaining injuries on the body. Researchers have also associated child abuse to long-term physiological effects such as abusive head trauma which refers to the injury to the head and its contents. Other effects involved impaired brain development where some parts of the brain fail to grow properly leading to dysfunctioning (Chapter 5. Child Abuse, 118). As depicted in the “Push” where the baby girl born Precious has down syndrome (Sapphire, 1996). Down syndrome is a disorder associated with the dysfunctioning of some part of the brain of the child. The fact that Precious could not manage reading and writing can only not be associated with the psychological effects of abuse but the failure of the brain to function due to impaired development.
Health and safety issues
In most cases, the victims of child abuse undergo many health complications including growing weak, becoming sick and sometimes suicidal. When the physical abuse or sexual abuse occurs to the victim, it is met with much disbelief from the victim. For the victim of survival such experience, and then he or she has to think of leaving the offender or the abuser (Chapter 07 Child Abuse, 161). In cases where the victim fails to get away, this will probably lead to their suffering depression, horror and posttraumatic stress syndrome that may ultimately lead to death (Chapter 07 Child Abuse, 162). So the first step is to get away from the abuser and seek medical services and counseling services from the field professionals. Health issues and safety seems to emerge from the book text “Push” when finally Precious’s father Carl dies of HIV/AIDS which makes her discover that she is also HIV positive having been infected by her father (Sapphire1996). The issue comes as a surprise, and disbelief to her since she has not been seeking medical services as she cannot do so. With the discovery, she moves away from the troubled mother with her children, gets tested and starts living afresh with her children. With the support of her teacher and others, she gets encouraged and starts to attend support groups (Sapphire, 1996). Therefore, Precious needs to start attending to her medical services immediately and seek the services of an occupational therapist.
Family-based theory
Reading the story of Precious as written by Sapphire in Push is also likely to lead readers into thinking about the different theories of child abuse. The theories that immediately come to mind are the based family theories. According to Lalayants & Prince (2016), family-based theories view violent behaviors within the family as having their basis in the family interactions and family structure as opposed to individuals within the family (Lalayants & Prince, 2016). Ineffective parenting and family systems theory are examples of family-based theories. The ineffective parenting approach suggests that parents play a critical role when it comes to the development of their children (Chapter 6: Adolescent Perpetrators, 137). Proper parental supervision is identified as the main driver for sibling abuse. On the other hand, the family systems theory pays particular attention to family behavior with the aim of identifying issues that are as a result of dysfunctional relationships. The approach takes into consideration the role that each family member plays in contributing to abuse (Gosselin, 2013). This approach is very much applicable in the case of Precious’ family. It is quite evident that the victim’s family is dysfunctional. The father is always absent while the mother has mental issues (Sapphire, 1996). It is not an ideal family, and the negative aspects of the family greatly contribute to Precious’ exposure to abuse since the age of three. The two main factors surrounding the parents of Precious are the contributing factors to her state where she includes the inability to attend to her studies effectively. She is also psychologically affected, and she does not feel like she fits in the society. This is evident when she felt dropping out of the alternative school she had joined.
Conclusion
Over the years, children have been victims of maltreatment by one or both of their parents which is a common occurrence in the American society. A lot of child abuse and neglect cases are perpetrated by either one parent or even both parents. It is reported that on a yearly basis, up to 700,000 children are abused in the US. Younger children are said to be the most vulnerable group of minors, with up to a third of children who are victims of abuse being those of age less than four years. We see this in Push Sapphire where Claireece “Precious” Jones narrates how starting at the age of three years; she was a victim of sexual, psychological and physical abuse from both her father and mother. At the age of sixteen years, Precious already had two kids, all sired by her absentee father. The story highlights some concepts and topics in the course material including child abuse, child neglect, incest, and family-based theories, consequences of child abuse and neglect as well as sexual abuse typologies.
ReferencesFriedman, E., & Billick, S. (2015). Unintentional Child Neglect: Literature Review andObservational Study. Psychiatric Quarterly, 86(2), 253-259. doi:10.1007/s11126-0149328-0
Gosselin, D. K. (2013). Heavy hands: an introduction to the crime of intimate and familyviolence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Lalayants, M., & Prince, J. D. (2016). Child Neglect and Onset of Substance Use Disorders among Child Welfare-Involved Adolescents. Child Abuse Review, 25(6), 469-478. doi:10.1002/car.2372
Sapphire. (1996). Push: A novel. Singapore Books.
Stokes, J., & Taylor, J. (2014). Does Type of Harm Matter? A Factorial Survey Examining the Influence of Child Neglect on Child Protection Decision-making. Child Care In Practice, 20(4), 383-398. doi:10.1080/13575279.2014.905456
Tran, N. K., Van Berkel, S. R., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Alink, L. A. (2017). The association between child maltreatment and emotional, cognitive, and physical health functioning in Vietnam. BMC Public Health, 171-13. doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4258-z