by Donna Hicks

Created on: December 12, 2011   Last Updated: December 17, 2011

Children may have to deal with the effects of child abandonment through one or more events in their lives. Children may be abandoned by one or both parents by leaving the child somewhere such as on a doorstep, at a church or public area such as a restaurant or hospital. A child may be abandoned through desertion of one of the parents who refuses to be a part of their child’s life, through divorce, inability or refusal of the parents to properly provide for the child or even through death.

Whatever the reason for the abandonment, whether intentional or unpreventable, the effects of child abandonment on a child can be long-lasting and far-reaching.

Types of abandonment

Children are completely dependent on their parents for their physical and emotional safety. When parents fail to provide a safe physical or emotional environment, the child may be abandoned.

A child can be abandoned physically. When a child is the victim of physical abandonment, one parent may have voluntarily left the home due to separation or divorce, or in the case of the parents not being married, may refuse to play an active role in the child’s life. Even when a parent dies, the parent has still left the child.

In other cases, parents may refuse or be unable or unwilling to provide a safe, physical environment for their children, such as shelter, supervision or to protect them from physical or sexual abuse. The children may have to fend for themselves.

Children can also be abandoned emotionally either by one or both parents. Both parents may still be in the home or it may be the single parent household where the child is made to feel worthless by being told so, by being blamed when things do not go right for the parents, by not being accepted for their own identity or when children must hide their identity from others for fear of rejection.

The effects of abandonment on children

Whether a child suffers physical or emotional abandonment or both, the effects can be devastating causing significant pain throughout childhood, even into adulthood. In addition to emotional pain caused by the abandonment, there are other effects of abandonment on children.

Children who have been abandoned may have profound fears of being abandoned again, whether by the remaining parent, adoptive parents or other caregivers. This leads to feelings of helplessness since the child has no control over the abandonment, no matter what type of abandonment has taken place.

A deep feeling of rejection as a result

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