NCJ Number
164631
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 20 Issue: 12 Dated: (December 1996) Pages: 1195-1211
Date Published
1996
Length
17 pages
Annotation
The relationships among parental supportiveness and abusiveness and exposure to abusiveness and attitudes in youth adulthood were studied in a sample of 216 college undergraduates at a western university.
Abstract
Data were collected using the Exposure to Abusive and Supportive Environmental Parenting Inventory. Results revealed that young adults who reported higher emotionally abusive parenting consistently reported significantly lower love and support from both parents. The relationship between physically abusive parenting and love/support depended on the gender of the parent and the child. Emotionally abusive parenting was significantly related to higher hostility and higher aggression as measured by the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, for both males and females, and to reports of physical fights within the family, for females only. Physically abusive parenting was significantly related to higher aggression but not to higher hostility. Lower support by fathers, but not by mothers, was significantly related to higher hostility. However, lower support of daughters by mothers was significantly related to increased physical fights in the family. Findings indicated that less severe abusive behaviors, especially emotional abuse, may have detrimental outcomes of hostility and aggression and that supportive behaviors by both mothers and fathers may be important factors in the outcome. Tables and 53 references (Author abstract modified)