Familial Correlates of Selected Types of Child Abuse and Neglect (From Child Abuse, P 35-44, 1988 -- See NCJ-116992)

• NCJ Number: 116997
• Author(s): M J Martin; J Walters
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: Phi Delta Kappa
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprinted from Journal of Marriage and the Family, V 44, N 2 (May 1982).

Annotation

This study, based on 489 cases of child abuse and neglect in Tennessee and Georgia, examined specific patterns of family circumstances associated with abandonment, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse.

Abstract

Parent characteristics were the best predictors of abandonment. Mothers who evidence sexual promiscuity and/or alcoholism, physical/health problems, and temporary financial problems were most likely to abandon their children. Family interaction appeared to be important in physical abuse. There appeared to be more stress, more parental psychological problems, and more perpetrators who were not biologically related to the child. While child emotional or psychological problems appeared to be related to emotional abuse, no parental or environmental predictors distinguished emotional abuse from other types of abuse. Factors associated with neglect included low income, inadequate housing, financial problems, too many children for income, and parental intellectual inadequacy. No relationship was found between sexual abuse and intellectual or physical problems of the child. Victims were more often female and perpetrators were more often male. Evidence also was found for a relationship between sexual abuse and parent-child conflict and the presence of a promiscuous/alcoholic father. 2 tables, 2 footnotes, and 10 references. (Author abstract modified)