NCJ Number
224888
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 32 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2008 Pages: 897-911
Date Published
September 2008
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study compared maltreating and non-maltreating parents in terms of aversiveness, positivity, and involvement.
Abstract
Results found that parents with a documented history of child physical abuse or child neglect also were distinguished from non-maltreating parents by the levels of aversiveness, positivity, and involvement they displayed during interactions that constituted the parent-child relationship. These differences varied depending on family and study characteristics. Type of maltreatment history (physically abusive vs. neglectful) had some impact on the degree of difference between maltreating and non-maltreating parents. Aversive behaviors better distinguished physically abusive from non-maltreating parents whereas involvement better distinguished neglectful from non-maltreating parents. These findings support the decision to look at three separate clusters of parenting behavior, especially the potential role of involvement in helping to understand the etiology of neglect. Neglect is evident not just in a parent’s failure to meet a child’s basic needs, but also in a more subtle failure to display attentiveness and responsiveness. Lack of involvement may reflect a parent’s own mental models about self and relationships and simultaneously communicate implicit messages about relationships to the neglected child. Data were collected during 33 observational studies comparing parent-child interactions in families where parents had a documented history of physical abuse or neglect vs. where parents had no history of child maltreatment. Parental behaviors were grouped into three clusters for comparison across studies. Tables, references