Typology for parents of abused children

This paper reports an effort to classify the parents of abused children with some existing and some new empirically/clinically consistent typologies, which are derived from the parents' psychopathological personality profiles. Such a classification scheme is informative and helpful for both treatment planning and permanency planning for abusive parents and abused children, whether or not the children have been separated from their parents. Several previously reported typologies for abusive parents are reviewed and then elaborated in light of the additional data and insights gained from an ongoing study of 50 abusive parents who were separated from their children due to severe child abuse. Such typological analyses based upon principal personality characteristics and dynamics promise to help in formulating both secondary and even primary child abuse prevention procedures and programs. The parent typologies which represent the more favorable prognoses, as determined by their therapist's estimate of their response to ongoing treatment, are those classified as rigid-compulsive, or experiencing identity/role crisis, or displaced abuse/violence. Parents whose child abusive behavior is a function of extremely maladaptive resolutions of major life issues fall into the hostile-aggressive, passive-dependent, and severe mental illness typologies, where the prognoses are considerably more guarded. The relatively high incidence of hostile-aggressive fathers coupled with passive-dependent mothers as abusive parents to children in a residential program for severely abused children also helps explain some of the children's psychopathology.     

The parental fitness of mothers with multiple personality disorder: a preliminary study

Recent studies show that nearly all individuals who develop multiple personality disorder (MPD) were abused as children. The majority of identified MPD patients are women in the age range associated with child-rearing responsibilities. A review of the parenting patterns of 75 mothers with MPD yielded findings suggesting that 38.7% were competent or exceptional mothers, 16% were grossly abusive to the extent of injuring, molesting, or placing their children at risk, and 45.3% were compromised or impaired as parents. The compromised/impaired mothers were a mixed group, including psychologically abusive individuals and those whose symptoms interfered with parenting despite their best efforts. Clinical illustrations are offered.     

Clusters of abusive parenting: A latent class analysis of families referred to Child Protective Services in Portugal

From the perspective of ecological models, it is suggested that a thorough behavior analysis of parental mistreatment and neglect is undertaken from a general approach to a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional perspective. Hence, the main goal of the present study was to determine if meaningful groups or clusters of abusive parenting in Portugal could be identified based on the characterization of the children and adolescents, their parents and context variables. An instrument was developed to assess variables of the children or adolescents, the family and the social context, all of which have been shown to be important in the literature. Child and Youth Protection Commissions from the whole of Portugal participated in the study, a total of 504 cases. Latent class analysis was applied in order to identify distinct parenting abusing behavior. The results showed four distinct clusters of families which are clearly defined in light of the types of risk and associated variables. The four groups are probabilistic and propose the composition of clusters with socio-demographic variables related to the types of risk. The significant interrelationships of different profiling characteristics are directly related to parenting abusing behavior. The results of this study confirmed our hypothesis of heterogeneous abusive parenting in Portugal. The findings yield useful policy-oriented results. Meaningfully organizing abusive parenting may be an important step not only in understanding the origins of abuse and neglect, but also in integrating this information into intervention models with children, young people and their families.     

Intergenerational transmission of abuse: a two-generational prospective study of an at-risk sample.

OBJECTIVE: A model was examined in which the association between a parent's history of abuse and the parent's own abusive behavior toward his or her children was hypothesized to be mediated by parental psychopathology, early childbearing, and consistency of discipline. Additionally, the effect of severity of abuse on the likelihood of becoming abusive was examined. METHOD: Participants were 109 parents (G1) and their male children (G2) who were involved in a longitudinal study. The G1 parents reported on their own experiences of abuse when they were children. Ten years later, the G2 youths reported on the G1 parents' abusive behavior toward them. A number of other factors, including parental socioeconomic status (SES), antisocial behavior, depression and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), consistency of discipline, and the perceived early difficulty of the G2 children were measured. RESULTS: As reported by their own children, parents who reported having been abused in childhood were significantly more likely to engage in abusive behaviors toward the next generation. Findings indicated that abuse experienced by the parents, as well as consistency of discipline and depression plus PTSD, were predictive of parental abuse of the child. Contrary to hypotheses, the effects were not fully mediated. However, there were significant interactions between parental history of abuse and consistency of discipline, as well as abuse history and depression and PTSD. Parents who had experienced multiple acts of abuse and at least one physical impact were more likely to become abusive than were the other parents. CONCLUSIONS: The implications of these findings for preventive interventions are discussed.     

Empathy and narcissism in a sample of child abuse perpetrators and a comparison sample of foster parents

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research was to study the personality variables of empathy and narcissism in a sample of child abuse perpetrators and a comparison sample of foster parents, conceptualized as nonabusive parents, in order to gain further understanding of perpetrators and to provide clues for intervention. METHOD: The sample consisted of two groups: physically and emotionally abusive parents (n=52) and foster parents (n=101). Participants responded to three instruments: the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), an instrument measuring individual differences in empathy, and two instruments measuring narcissism: the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and the Hypersensitivity Narcissism Scale (HSNS). RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found between the two groups on three of the four subscales of the IRI: perspective-taking, empathic concern, and personal distress. Based on the definition of these subscales, the abusive parents as compared to the foster parents were not able to take the perspective of another or see things from another's viewpoint, showed less warmth, compassion and concern for others, and experienced difficulty in tense interpersonal situations. Statistically significant differences were found for the two groups on three of the six subscales of the NPI: authority, exhibitionism, and superiority, and on the HSNS. The abusive parents demonstrated less self-confidence, a greater lack of impulse control and were more narcissistic than their foster parent counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that it is how the perpetrators experience aversive behavior in their children that may provoke them to physically and emotionally abuse their children. Their self-centeredness in addition to their deficiencies in empathy may cause them to experience their children's misbehavior as an affront to their authority. Implications for treatment are made from this conceptualization of parental abuse.     

The untreatable family

The untreatable family is defined as one in which it is unsafe to permit an abused child to live. Despite the fact that many families turn out to be resistive to treatment, they have received very little attention. In the field of physical abuse, 16-60% of parents reabuse their children following the initial incident. Sexual reabuse is estimated to occur in 16% of cases. Treatment of abusive families also aims to alter family functioning. From studies in physical abuse we find 20-87% of families are unchanged or worse at the end of treatment. In sexual abuse the equivalent figures are 16-38%. Parental factors associated with a poor outcome include parental history of severe childhood abuse, persistent denial of abusive behavior, refusal to accept help, severe personality disorder, mental handicap complicated by personality disorder, parental psychosis with delusions involving the child, and alcohol/drug abuse. Parents lack empathy for their child and fail to see the child's needs as separate from their own. Severe forms of abuse (fractures, burns, scalds, premeditated infliction of pain, vaginal intercourse or sexual sadism) are more likely to prove untreatable. Munchausen by proxy, nonaccidental poisoning, and severe forms of nonorganic failure to thrive are similarly resistant. An early recognition of untreatability may help to reduce burnout by diverting precious resources from the untreatable to the families for whom there is relatively more hope.     

Child physical and sexual abuse: the roles of sadism and sexuality

Based on the analytical concepts of narcissism and perversion and clinical material, an hypothesis is presented for the understanding of the mental functioning of the physically and sexually abusive parent. Relating the aggressive instinct to narcissism and the sexual instinct to perversion, two modes of functioning are presented which have some points in common and some diverging but which show the dynamics involved in physical and sexual abuse. Understanding the type of emotional relationship between the parents and the type of their emotional investment in their child allows us to see how the complicity of parents works against the child. This understanding implicitly gives insight into the structuring of the personality of the child-victim, who in turn undergoes the risk of himself becoming a physically and/or sexually abusive parent with his own children.     

Attitudes of Turkish parents, pediatric residents, and medical students toward child disciplinary practices

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the study were to: determine the attitudes of parents, pediatric residents, and medical students from a Turkish population toward childhood disciplinary methods; ascertain the association of participants' abusive childhood history with their attitudes toward discipline; and assess their attitudes about disciplinary actions, which should be reported as abuse. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Ankara University School of Medicine, Department of Social Pediatrics. Sixty-five parents, 39 pediatric residents, and 106 medical students completed a questionnaire (Survey of Standards of Discipline). This questionnaire was designed to measure sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes toward childhood disciplinary practices, and abusive childhood experiences. There were 43 different disciplinary acts in this questionnaire. The participants were expected to give responses to these acts in three categories: (a) acceptable as discipline; (b) unacceptable as discipline; and (c) unacceptable as discipline-would report to authorities as child abuse. Based on the responses to this questionnaire, we developed the Severity Scale. Using this scale, physical severity scores, verbal severity scores, and total severity scores were measured for each participant. RESULTS: None of the participants accepted life-threatening practices as discipline, but some declared certain abusive disciplinary practices as acceptable. Some forceful disciplinary methods were not considered as reportable by participants. All severity scores of both residents and students were found to be higher than those of the parents (for verbal severity scores p=.042). Also, both verbal and physical severity scores of parents with one child were higher than those of parents with two children (for verbal severity scores p=.044). Ninety-one participants (43.3%) indicated that beating was an acceptable form of discipline. Of parents, 66.9% reported abusive childhood history by their own criteria. Of medical students with an abusive childhood experience, 56.5% accepted beating as appropriate (p=.001). Both verbal and physical severity scores were found to be higher in participants with abusive childhood history. CONCLUSIONS: Abusive childhood history and lack of education regarding appropriate discipline techniques are linked to the acceptance of certain physical discipline practices. Turkey's cultural and traditional norms may be associated with the use of physical punishment, and in some cases, physical abuse. The lack of awareness of abusive discipline methods among physicians constitutes problems for child protection and must be addressed. Thus, educational programs on child disciplinary practices are required to provide an increased awareness of child abuse among health professional trainees and parents in Turkey.     

Approaching child abuse treatment from the perspective of empathy

Research identifies empathy as a moderating variable in the display of aggression. Research further suggests that empathy is a significant variable in the effective parenting of children. Studies in child abuse show that abusive parents score significantly lower on empathy measures as compared to their nonabusive counterparts. The purpose of this theoretical article is (1) to suggest based on the literature that empathy training should be a core component in treatment strategies with abusive parents. A variety of approaches to empathy training will be suggested; (2) to encourage the implementation of empathy training in interventions with abusive parents and the measurement through research of the effectiveness of this approach to treatment on a short and long-term basis.     

Sexual interactions among siblings and cousins: experimentation or exploitation?

Incest by cousins has not been well documented compared with sibling incest. The purpose of this study was to describe the features of incest by cousins and siblings presenting to a sexual assault center and to differentiate cases of abusive behavior from normal sexual exploration. Four criteria were considered indicative of abusive behavior: (1) age difference of greater than or equal to 5 years between victim and perpetrator; (2) use of force, threat, or authority by abuser; (3) attempted penile penetration; and (4) documented injury in victim. Of 831 sexually abused children less than 14 years of age evaluated for sexual assault complaints, 49 cases of cousin incest (5.9%) and 35 cases of sibling incest (4.2%) were identified. A total of 54 male cousins abused 8 boys and 41 girls; brothers abused 3 boys and 32 girls. The victims' median age was 5 years for cousins and 7 years for siblings. The perpetrators' mean age was 16.2 years for cousins and 15.5 years for siblings, with only 16 (19%) of all perpetrators being greater than 16 years old. Of the perpetrators, 66 (79%) were greater than or equal to 5 years older than their victims. All 18 victims with age differences of less than 5 years met one or more of the other abusive criteria. A similar pattern of adolescent perpetrators having abusive sexual contact with young children was demonstrated by analysis of cousin incest and sibling incest in this study. Appropriate case management requires understanding of normal sexual experimentation and recognition of the abusive nature of these cases.     

The Relation between Chinese Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Competence and Preacademic Skills

Research Findings: The current study examines the relations between Chinese preschoolers’ social-emotional competence and their preacademic skills, as well as the role of child gender and parental education in such relations. A total of 154 children from the northeastern region of China were involved in the study. Both parents and head teachers of the target children completed measures of children’s social-emotional competence and preacademic skills. Multiple aspects of social-emotional competence were investigated. The results showed that children’s withdrawn behaviors and attention problems were negatively related to their preacademic skills. Both parent- and teacher-reported positive social behaviors were positively related to children’s preacademic skills. In addition, child gender and parental education together moderated the effects of children’s anxious/depressed problems and parent-reported social behaviors on children’s preacademic skills. Practice or Policy: Teacher training and support are needed to help preschool teachers (a) better support children who are socially withdrawn or have difficulty regulating attention and (b) understand the construct and importance of social-emotional development in relation to children’s preacademic development . In addition, child characteristics such as age and gender and socioeconomic factors need to be taken into consideration in the study of young children’s social-emotional and cognitive competence.     

Further Exploration of the 16-PF and Counselor Effectiveness

This study reexamines the relationship between the Sixteen-Personality Factor (16-PF) Questionnaire and counselor performance ratings. The 16-PF was administered to 30 full-time counselor trainees. Supervisor ratings of counseling effectiveness in practicums were correlated with raw scores of counselors on the 16-PF. Data revealed that the pattern of relationships indicated by significant correlations is not consistent across this and three other studies using the 16-PF. The results of this study and the reanalysis of previous studies indicate that it would not be advisable at this time for counselor educators to identify or predict effective counselors on the basis of the 16-PF.     

Behavioral intervention strategies with child abusive parents: A home intervention program

This article describes a therapeutic program for child abusive parents that is psychoeducationally based and is conducted through home visits by trained behavioral interventionists. The immediate goals of the intervention are to teach abusive parents effective child management procedures based on social learning therapy and to modify faulty or excessive expectations these parents have toward the behavior of their children. The general model is discussed as well as criteria for selection of parents for home intervention services, the differences between home intervention with abusive and non-abusive parents and the procedures used in home intervention services. A general discussion is also provided of the various goals and stages through which parents progress.     

Parents of abused children in Greece: Psychiatric and psychological characteristics: Results of a pilot study

The psychological and psychiatric characteristics of the parents of 15 abused children were studied by means of clinical psychiatric evaluation and psychological tests (MMPI, Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire, Navran's Dependency Scale, Rosenweig's Picture Frustration Test, WAIS). It was found that almost all the parents were suffering from some type of personality disorder ranging from mild to severe with some features of anxiety and reactive depression. Three of the parents (two mothers and one father) were psychotic. The psychological assessment further demonstrated that most of the parents had low IQ scores, were immature, impulsive with strong dependency needs, low tolerance to frustration and high hostility scores. Most of the parents were coming from the lower socioeconomic groups, had poor education, were deprived in their childhood and their own families were broken and chaotic. The findings and the significance of the study are presented in the light of the absence of previous research in this field in Greece.     

Predicting abuse-prone parental attitudes and discipline practices in a nationally representative sample

OBJECTIVE: According to sociological and ecological models of abuse, typically nonabusive parents could behave abusively towards their children under certain circumstances. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that place parents at risk of abusing their children by predicting parents' use of discipline practices and attitudes that may bias parents towards abusive behaviors, which we refer to as abuse-proneness. METHOD: A telephone interview was administered by the Gallup Organization to a nationally representative sample of 1,000 parents. Using a set of theoretically relevant risk factors, multiple regression was used to predict variations in parental attitudes (i.e., attitudes towards physical discipline and attitudes that devalue children) and parental discipline practices (i.e., physical discipline, nonphysical discipline, and verbal abuse). RESULTS: The findings confirmed the importance of examining elements of parental attitudes, history, personality characteristics, as well as religion and ideology in predicting abuse proneness. Child age also was an important predictor in all analyses except predicting parental attitudes that devalue children. The findings suggest also, however, that it may be unduly simplified to regard parents as somewhere on a continuum of nonpunitive to punitive disciplinarians. Social isolation was not a significant predictor in any of the analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Although many important theoretical predictors of abuse proneness were confirmed, many questions arise regarding the diversity of discipline practices that parents use, and the relevance of child's age and social isolation in predicting abuse proneness. Implications for practitioners and future research are discussed.     

小学高年级留守儿童创造性思维与创造性人格的调查与分析

选取254名小学五、六年级学生为被试,采用创造性思维、创造性人格测验,考察了留守儿童与非留守儿童在创造性思维、创造性人格上的差异,结果发现：留守儿童与非留守儿童的创造性思维、创造性人格得分差异不显著;在创造性思维总分及流畅性、独创性维度上,被试类别与年级的交互作用显著;对创造性思维总分而言,还存在着性别与年级的显著交互作用;在创造性人格的好奇性维度上,六年级儿童显著高于五年级儿童;留守儿童创造性人格对于其创造性思维有着显著的影响,其中的挑战性、想象性、冒险性与创造性思维的相关较高。     

First Nations,Métis,and Inuit education: The Alberta initiative for school improvement approach to improve indigenous education in Alberta

The education of minority students is of considerable interest within the literature. Ensuring that all children receive quality programming and that they successfully graduate from school is of concern for parents, educational stakeholders, and society alike. In Canada, the indigenous populations of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) students have fallen significantly short of acceptable graduation rates. In an attempt to address this issue, results from 16 selected projects funded by the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) that focused upon FNMI Education will be discussed. A comprehensive review of the projects suggests that by involving Aboriginal parents and Elders in meaningful ways and by focusing upon Aboriginal language, culture, and history not as an “add-on” but an integral part of Canadian history and culture, Aboriginal students are more likely to remain in school.     

‘We can't make him fit into the system’: parental reflections on the reasons why home education is the only option for their child who has special educational needs

This small-scale study investigates the perspectives of parents whose children have special educational needs/disabilities and who have elected to withdraw their children from the state-maintained education system in England and educate them at home. The study draws on data gathered from seven parents and their perspectives of home education following a government-commissioned review of home education in 2009, subsequently known as the ‘Badman Report’. The former New Labour government commissioned this review to assess the merits of the system of supporting and monitoring home education in England. Findings identified a number of issues, including the lack of understanding by staff within school settings around the issues of special needs and particularly in the area of autistic spectrum disorders, the failure to engage in partnership with parents and the impact that the school environment had upon the children.     

家长的教育理念是影响孩子心理健康的重要因素——教育孩子要在“根”上下工夫

许多家长非常重视孩子教育,为了孩子能出人头地而不惜重金让孩子上各种各样的补习班、特长班,搞得孩子精疲力尽。过度学习导致有的学生越来越厌恶学习,有的学生学习成绩虽有提高但出现了郁闷、紧张、焦虑等心理问题,学生的身心健康已经受到危害。在学生的发展方面,与提高学习成绩相比,培养学生健全的人格更为关键。