Summary On The Impact Of The Hmong Community On Child Maltreatment

Hmong Community on Child Maltreatment

Child maltreatment happens to any child regardless of their ethnicity groups, age, education, financial status, or living condition. Among the race/ethnicities in the United States, Asian has the lowest rate of living in poverty and the lowest rate of child abuse (IRP, 2012). Understanding the impact that poverty has on child maltreatment challenged the writer to look at a certain ethnicity group. The Hmong community is a group of people that can relate to both poverty and child maltreatment. Studies had shown that poverty has an impact on child abuse, yet there are not many reports made from the Hmong community in regards to child maltreatment.

Although the numbers are low for Asians’ poverty rate and

In the Hmong culture, parents and children do not communicate with one another on a daily basis. Traditionally, Asian families may not be as verbal and openly affectionate toward their children as families are expected to be in a standard American family (CACF, 2011). In a YouTube video called “Asian Parents React to I Love You” is a video about college Asian students away from home, discussing about the last time they said the words “I Love You” to their parents. The video showed 3 out of 5 people never had said “I love you to their parents before. One of the male students said “I never said I love you to my parents, and that’s probably because they never said it to me, so love was more shown through actions (2014).” The Hmong community definitely can relate to this video because the Hmongs like many Asian descents are not expressive towards their feelings to one another. Even though the video sent out a positive message about how important communication is, it also shows a different aspect of the parent and their child’s way of living. By understanding that concept of the minimal communication in most Hmong families, communication may sometimes lead to confrontation and arguments that leads to emotional and verbal abuse. Research shows behavioral problems and at risk behaviors are less likely to occur when families identify as having a positive communication and more likely to occur than they have

However, the sexual abuse that will be discussed is something that has been in the Hmong community for centuries of years. The traditional Hmong weddings and marriages are not the typical marriages that you see. In the Hmong culture, girls as young as 11 to ages 17 are getting married among their age group or in many of the cases, young girls are marrying men who are in their late 30s to late 50s. In the culture, it is acceptable to be married as young as 11 and it is acceptable to be married to someone older. Many Hmong men would marry these girls by trying to lure them in with money and to fulfill their needs. Most of these men will promise to support and provide for the girl’s family in exchange to being his wife (Moua, 2017). Most Hmong parents would agree to the marriage and allow the marriage to happen. That is because traditionally, girls can be married at ages 11-17, older men will take the opportunity to force the girls into marriage by abducting them. Abducting a bride has been a part of the Hmong culture and it is acceptable to do. Parents have the right to fight for their daughter, but in many cases, parents do not. Most parents will allow the marriage and will be willing to give up their daughter. It is a practice that has been in the Hmong culture for a very long time that it became acceptable for parent to accept this older man as their