NCJ Number
129616
Journal
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Volume: 178 Issue: 9 Dated: (September 1990) Pages: 592-595
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The study aimed to determine the predominant defense style in parents who abuse their children, at least as determined by a new defense style questionnaire.
Abstract
The scores of 32 parents who had physically abused their young children and had been assessed after court proceedings were compared with a normal population sample and with patients with anxiety disorders who were equally symptomatic. Parents who had abused their children identified themselves as being particularly likely to use projection, displacement, passive-aggressiveness denial, and splitting to a degree greater than normal persons or patients with anxiety disorders. We would caution that, although the differences remained after statistical control of age and sex differences, a firm conclusion that such defenses are germane to child abuse will have to await replication of these findings with a study using a control group of young parents who do not abuse their children matched for social class and family structure. 16 references and 1 table (Author abstract)