Group psychotherapy for adult women mistreated as children by pathological mothers

In this paper, group psychotherapy for adult women having similar backgrounds of abusive, pathological mothers is described. The goals of the group included: providing a support system to help the members cope with their destructive mothers, helping them to recognize how the conflictual relationship with their mothers generalized to other conflictual relationships particularly with abusive men, and helping the members to increase their behavioral repertoire for coping with their mothers' illogical and unreasonable demands. Unlike most treatment groups which take considerable time to develop trusting relationships, intimacy and cohesiveness among group members, the women in this group developed almost instant solidarity. This appeared due to their having a common bond based on sharing equally traumatic backgrounds and on their attraction to men as abusive to them as their mothers. Prior to the group, they felt that no one (including the individual therapist) could understand what their lives had been like. The solidarity in this group grew more intense with time which permitted deeper investigation of topics such as fear of unworthiness, closeness, and abandonment. Findings from a self-report questionnaire suggested that three of the five group members had achieved significant improvements in coping with their troublesome relationships with pathological mothers and abusive men. These three members attributed their gains to their new coping behaviors learned in group, the group's supportive environment, and the group's permission to examine fully the range of feelings they harbored toward their mothers and themselves.     

Dimensional comparisons in subject-specific academic self-concepts and achievements: A quasi-experimental approach

Even though marks in different subjects are substantially correlated, the corresponding self-concepts often display a very weak association. The “Internal–External Frame of Reference Model” (I/E-model; Marsh, H. W. (1986). Verbal and math self-concepts: an internal/external frame of reference model. American Educational Research Journal, 23, 129–149) explains this finding: social comparisons (resulting in positive correlations of the self-concepts) and dimensional comparisons (resulting in negative correlations of the self-concepts) are confounded. A rarely tested hypothesis derived from the I/E-model is that the dimensional comparison process only affects the self-concepts, if the students achieve differently in the corresponding subjects. In a sample of N = 1508 students (grades 7 and 8), low correlations of the self-concepts for four subjects could be observed only in students displaying different school-marks in the corresponding subjects. In students who have the same marks in different subjects, the self-concepts showed a substantial positive correlation.     

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.     

Academic self-concept and teachers' perceptions of normal,mentally retarded,and learning disabled elementary students

The self-concepts of educable mentally impaired, learning disabled, and nonhandicapped children were assessed using the Student Self-Evaluation (SSE), Teacher Evaluation Scale (TES), and How I See Myself (HISM) test. A Groups × Age × Sex analysis of covariance, with IQ effects statistically controlled, was computed for each measure. On the SSE, the groups were significantly different, with nonhandicapped students having better self-concepts than learning disabled students, and learning disabled students having better self-concepts than educable mentally impaired students. Teacher estimates of self-concept (TES) indicated that nonhandicapped students have better self-concepts than have handicapped students. For the HISM scores, there was a Group × Sex interaction, but no significant main effects; there was no consistent pattern to the interactions. The results suggest that handicapped children, as a group, have a lower self-concept than have nonhandicapped children. Implications for educational programming and future research are offered.     

脏话现象的差异心理学解析和文化心理学研究路径

脏话,一种独特而普遍的社会现象,同时也是一种心理现象,它反映了不同文化背景下的个体的不同心理特征。说脏话的积极作用在于宣泄情绪、促进群体认同、折射心理状态,但不利于和谐社会精神文明建设。脏话现象有中西、城乡、区域、性别差异,出于心理学本土化的思考,需要从心理学,特别是文化心理学的角度对脏话现象进行心理学的系统研究,为本土心理学学科建设和社会的和谐建设提供理论依据和实践指导。     

学习不良儿童自我概念、归因风格与心理健康的相关研究

采用“田纳西自我概念量表(TSCS)”、“多维——多向归因量表(MMCS)”及“临床症状自评量表(SCL-90)”，对初中一、二、三年级288名一般儿童和学习不良儿童施测。结果发现，学习不良儿童的自我概念、归因风格与一般儿童差异显，且二与其心理健康水平呈高相关。这一结果提示，加强积极自我概念和归因风格的培养将有助于学习不良儿童心理健康水平的提高。     

Emotional risk to children caught in violent marital conflict—The Basildon treatment project

This paper outlines the work of the Basildon Marital/Family Violence Project set up as a result of two studies undertaken by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (N.S.P.C.C.) School of Social Work, which looked at the effect of marital violence upon the children involved. These effects were classified under the following headings: (1) the children were scapegoated; (2) used as pawns in the marital battles; (3) turned agression against themselves; (4) had relationship problems at school; (5) were physically assaulted by the parents in 25% of the cases. The project, which is now in its 4th year, has offered social work services, consultation, training courses and research. Work with the families, and particularly with the children, has further emphasised the severe emotional damage that marital violence can have upon the children. The paper optimistically reports that after intensive work using a five-point treatment programme, and direct work with the children, there has been considerable diminution of violence in many of the cases and in some cases no repetition of such violence at all. The worker's approach, it is suggested, should be characterised by optimism combined with indestructible calm, genuine empathy combined with 24-hour access, persistence in the face of lack of progress, enhancement of parents' low self-esteem, regular contact and an ability to contain destructiveness.     

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.     

Foundations of children’s self-concepts about everyday activities: Identities and comparative contexts

Children’s motivations to engage in everyday activities draw on their experiences in thinking of oneself and the activities. In theory, these personal and social realities provide the complex foundations of self-concepts. The aim of this project was to define the foundations of children’s self-concepts about everyday activities; to focus on everyday activities of literacy and numeracy. Participants were 8- to 12-year-old girls and boys, in a pilot study (N?=?16), correlational models of identities (N?=?297) and comparative contexts (N?=?42), and experimental evidence (N?=?82). The pilot study validated materials, and Study 1 confirmed a perceptual base for self-concepts. Results of Study 2 highlighted a range of comparative contexts, and Study 3 confirmed personal and social bases of children’s self-concepts. In this situation, foundations of self-concepts cover identities (as a sense of individuality and belonging) and self-categorizations, in thinking about stability of skills and abilities over time, and in relation to children the same age. These ideas are readily applied to identities and arrays of self-categorizations in other situations. In conclusion, a personal and social theory of self-concepts extends contemporary Motivational Spiral Models that relate self-concepts to task strategies, skills, feelings and participation. Outcomes suggest foundations for differential interventions motivating children to participate in everyday activities.     

Extreme food behavior in abusive families

The availability of food can provide a positive tool in the treatment of abusive and neglectful families. This concept evolves from the belief that inadequate parents are most often people who have been deprived of an adequate “parenting” experience in their own lives. Deprivation creates a void of security which may result in many extremes of behavior. Many of these extremes, as they are related to food habits, have been defined here.Gorging is identified as the first extreme, and differentiation is made between the dynamics of the discriminate gorger who can be helped specifically and the indiscriminate gorger who needs infinite abundance to feel secure. Secondly, the physical and emotional insecurities which result in a need to hoard food are examined, and some insight is offered into understanding the obese patient and the steps necessary before anticipating any effective regulation of the obese person's eating habits. The last personal extreme discussed is despised-food intake which is an easily recognizable symptom of deprivation.The extremes of interaction between peers and spouses at group meals have been addressed, and it is noted that group meals which are traditionally instruments of socialization can be extremely stressful for groups of insecure members.Finally, the extremes of parent-child interaction are outlined, and it is shown how these extremes can reduce the family's mealtime to a devastating emotional battleground. The characteristics of overfeeding and withholding are defined, and it is shown how this chain of extremes results in a complete breakdown of the “parenting” process in which all members fail. Based on the clinical observations made at The National Center for the Pre- vention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect in Denver, it is suggested that feeding can be used as a therapeutic tool not only to attract and hold patient attendance, but also to facilitate progress in therapy through the reduction of physical anxiety.     

The escalation and maintenance of child abuse: A cybernetic model

A cybernetic model of child abuse is presented as a contribution to the theoretical literature on child abuse. The child's role in his or her own abuse is stressed; interaction between caretaker and child is emphasized. While the origins of abuse are discussed, the focus of the paper is on the maintenance and escalation of the pattern of abusive interaction. The author proposes to explain this pattern-maintenance through the application of Gregory Bateson's concept of schismogenesis, or regenerative feedback, a concept derived from cybernetics and family systems theory. Suggestions for intervention in this process are discussed in the conclusion.     

Integrating the big-fish-little-pond effect,the basking-in-reflected-glory effect,and the internal/external frame of reference model predicting students’ individual and collective academic self-concepts

The present research is the first to integrate three major theories of academic self-concept formation into one framework: the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), the basking-in-reflected-glory effect (BIRGE), and the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model. For separating the BFLPE and the BIRGE, we introduced students’ collective self-concepts, defined as their perceptions of domain-specific abilities of their group (e.g., their class). We tested our newly developed model, predicting students’ math and verbal self-concepts, in the field (N = 2,001 students from 110 classes) and in the laboratory (N = 315 students in groups of three). In both studies, we found support for (1) the BFLPE (i.e., negative effects of group-average achievements on individual self-concepts within domains), (2) the BIRGE (i.e., positive effects of collective self-concepts on individual self-concepts within domains), and (3) the I/E model (i.e., positive/negative effects of individual achievements on individual self-concepts within/between domains). Moreover, for the first time, we have largely replicated the I/E model relations for predicting students’ collective self-concepts by their group-average achievements. Interestingly, the BIRGE exceeded the BFLPE in both studies. This finding demonstrates the high suitability of collective self-concepts for operationalizing the BIRGE. Overall, our findings substantially enhance our knowledge of the cognitive processes involved in students’ self-concept formation.     

Treatment of parents who abuse their children: A literature review and implications for professionals

This article contains a review of the current treatment approaches to child abuse in terms of the following models: psychopathological, sociological, social-situational, family systems and social learning. The psychopathological model of child abuse emphasizes direct services. The services provided may consist of individual, group and lay treatment, volunteer companions, and self-help groups. The sociological model's approach to intervention emphasizes the need for wide-ranging changes in social values and structures. The socio-situational model's approach to treatment is based upon the assumption that the cause of child abuse lies not in the individual, but in the social situation, which may, in turn, be maintaining abusive patterns of behavior. The family systems approach to treatment resembles that of the socio-situational model in that it too emphasizes changing the family's pattern of interaction and behaviors. Finally, the social learning approach to treatment involves the identification of behavioral goals, specific techniques for achieving these goals, and the use of social reinforcers to facilitate this process. Data indicate that parents who abuse their children face multiple social and psychological difficulties. It has been suggested that the reason why treatment programs have not prodoced significant results in treating parents who abuse their children is that they focus on only one of the factors that operate to produce child abuse, i.e., lack of child management skills, marital dissatisfaction, or vocation or interpersonal skills dissatisfaction. It is logical that a treatment approach to abuse must view the problem as multi-determined and services should be structured in such a manner. Thus, the comprehensive treatment program should consist of the following; (1) Child Management Program; (2) Marital Enrichment Program; (3) Vocational Skills Enrichment Program; (4) Interpersonal Skills Enrichment Program. Programs to accomplish the acquisition of requisite skills in each of the four areas of emphasis are chosen from the technology of applied behavioral analysis. Each of the four program components is reviewed along with the rationale for a comprehensive program delivered through a behavioral group work approach. The article concludes with a discussion of the implementation and evaluation of the program.     

Neglected fathers: Limitations in diagnostic and treatment resources for violent men

In its examination of violent activity within the family, current literature assumes a “pecking order” exists: Larger and stronger family members attack those who are smaller and weaker. Adult males are usually studied as primary maltreaters of spouses, while females are considered mainly responsible for physically abusive behavior with children. Use of this perspective has led to neglect of male abusers, who injure half of the mistreated children in the United States. Through assessment of 66 studies of child abuse published during a 5-year period, this paper documents the lack of attention abusive fathers have received. Twenty-eight of these studies included only mothers, while two dealt exclusively with fathers. Most of the 36 remaining two-parent studies did not discuss sex differences. No diagnostic categories consistently differentiated male from female abusers. No study discussed specialized treatment needs of women and men. This survey suggests that the therapeutic field considers the child's mother the primary responsible parent, even though she may not be the perpetrator of violence in the family. As a result, inadequate treatment resources have been made available to maltreating fathers. The survey points to the need for much more comprehensive research comparing male and female maltreaters.     

An exploratory study on the relationship between parents�� career interests and the career interests of young adults

In this study, we attempt to investigate the potential effects of parents’ career interests on young adults’ career interests. Using a sample of 113 freshmen in Hong Kong, results indicated that after controlling for personality, gender, general mental abilities and emotional intelligence, some of the parents’ career interests were still related to the young adults’ respective career interests. For some types of interests, the extent of influences is found to be contingent on the gender of the respondents. Implications are discussed.     

学习不良大学生的心理状态与教育策略研究

探讨学习不良大学生的心理状况及教育策略。方法:用心理健康量表(SCL—90)、成就动机量表(AMS)和自我概念量表(TSCS)对学习不良大学生进行调查,并随机选择了对照组。结果:学习不良大学生心理健康状况较差,在成就动机方面两组大学生也存在差异。结论:针对大学生学习不良现象教育者必须查找到其不良的真正原因,并且应该从学校、教师及个人三方面进行努力去改变它。     

教师与非教师群体心理健康状况调查分析及比较研究

采用SCL-90临床症状自评量表对广东省的294名教师与719名正常成人群体进行心理健康调查,发现教师心理健康水平明显要好于正常成人群体。还探讨了教师群体与全国常模、外来工、精神科护士、大陆三省正常成人、中学教师、小学教师群体的心理健康比较状况;结果显示教师心理健康水平要好于本省的正常成人、外来务工群体、精神科护士、粤西中学教师;要差于全国常模、三省正常成人、东莞小学教师群体。并从教师个体角度对教师保持心理健康提出建议。     

Development pathways from abusive parenting to delinquency: The mediating role of depression and aggression

This study investigated the long-term relationship between abusive parenting and adolescent mental health, and the path to delinquent behavior. Longitudinal data from 5th through 7th graders from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS) were analyzed to examine if abusive parenting was a predictor of early adolescent delinquency behavior, via aggression and depression as mediating factors. The results were as follows. First, parental abuse (both emotional and physical) was found to have significant effects on children's psychosocial factors (aggression and depression), while parental neglect (both emotional and physical) had significant effects on depression alone and not on aggression. Second, aggression exerted significant effects on both violent and non-violent delinquent behaviors, while depression had a significant effect on only non-violent delinquent behaviors. Third, children's psychosocial factors (aggression and depression) played significant mediating roles between earlier abusive parenting and delinquent behaviors. Fourth, for children living in a family with their grandparents, paths from abusive parenting, psychosocial adaptation, and later delinquent behaviors were not significant, implying that living with grandparents played a protective factor in these relationships.     

The Internal/External Frame of Reference in Adolescents′ Math and Verbal Self-Concepts: A Generalization Study

This study examined the generalizability of the internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model which has been applied primarily to Australian and Canadian students. The external part of the model concerns the influence of social comparisions on the formation of math and verbal self-concepts. The internal part is when one infers one′s ability in an area (e.g., math) by comparing one′s performance in that area with one′s performance in another area (e.g., verbal). We examined whether this model was generalizable to American adolescents, across different measures of math and verbal self-concepts, and across gender. Subjects were 152 seventh and eighth graders. LISREL causal modeling and multi-sample analyses were employed. All but one of our findings were consistent with the I/E model. While higher verbal achievement made a significant contribution to lower math self-concept, higher math achievement did not make a significant contribution to lower verbal self-concept. Findings held across different self-concept instruments and across gender.     

Physically abusive parents and the 16-PF: a preliminary psychological typology.

A typology of physically abusive parents was developed based upon personality characteristics measured by the 16-PF. Cluster analysis revealed five distinct patterns, accounting for 81 of 82 profiles submitted. Significant differences among the clusters were found on 14 of the 16 factors. The following types were described: (a) Shy, withdrawn, apprehensive, sober, and restrained; tending to have the least education, the greatest number of children. (b) Parents presenting as "normal" in personality features; tending to have relatively more education, fewer children. (c) Compulsive, bold, dominant, and assertive; tending to be highly manipulative in self-presentations, have high educational levels, and be older than other types. (d) Basically passive and submissive; tending to come from families where both parents are abusive. (e) Isolated, withdrawn, suspicious, tense, and apprehensive; tending to be more psychologically disturbed. Significance tests on external variables performed to validate the solution found differences among clusters in age, education, number of children, number of parents involved in abuse, 16-PF Faking Good and Faking Bad scores, and MMPI Scales L, F, K, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 0. Distinguishing personality features and demographic characteristics of the types are discussed with a focus upon possible treatment approaches for each type. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are addressed.