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The substance of marijuana is becoming legal in an increasing number of states. With the rise in legallity of marijuana comes a question of how will child protective agencies treat marijuana use by a parent or guardian. Family courts have continued to use the "actual harm" standard to determine child abuse and neglect. In addition to that standard, this Note proposes the adoption of "conduct specific" language into state marijuana statutes in order to further clarify for such agencies when investigations warrant a child neglect or abuse petition to be filed against parents. Key Points for the Family Court Community: Marijuana's illegal status has been subject to change in over thirty states over the last two decades.The substance has survived a long history of punitive treatment from both federal and state governments, and it remains the nation's most popular psychoactive drug.Only six out of the thirty‐three states contain "conduct specific" language in their marijuana statutes which do not presume child abuse or neglect for parental marijuana use alone.Adopting "conduct specific" language into marijuana statutes will make it clear that a parent cannot have a child abuse or neglect case brought against them solely for using marijuana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two randomly drawn samples of mothers and fathers of young children in New York and Texas were assessed for both partner physical aggression and physical child abuse. Overall, both minor and severe physical aggression against a partner were associated with an increased likelihood of physical child abuse. However, even for severe aggression in these randomly drawn community samples, the likelihood of child abuse given partner abuse was less than 25%. These rates were significantly lower than those in battered women samples. Our findings have clinical and policy implications for professionals charged with determining child safety in custody and parenting time matters. Practitioner's Key Points: In two large randomly selected samples of parents, there was an increased risk of child physical abuse, given the presence of wife or husband physical abuse.For the vast majority of parents who engaged in some partner physical aggression, whether the partner aggression was minor or severe, there was no physical child abuse.Attorneys, judges, and forensic evaluators need to be very careful in not generalizing risk of child abuse from populations of women in shelters to women who present in court and indicate that her husband slapped or hit her.Decisions regarding risk of physical child abuse in any individual case must take into account not just partner abuse but other risk factors that make child abuse more likely such as substance abuse, overreactive discipline styles, and attitudes approving of aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Registered sex offenders are obligated to comply with rules put forth by their state's registry. While there are stringent guidelines regarding the offender's interaction with the public, a sex offender's ability to obtain custody of their child is less rigid. Statutes differ on the level of scrutiny referencing their right to parent, which leaves an opening for offenders to abuse their child. This Note proposes the adoption of a model statute in which registered Tier III sex offender parents who were convicted for a crime involving a minor are precluded from gaining physical or legal custody of their child. Key Points for the Family Court Community:57,329 cases of childhood sexual abuse allegations are confirmed per year by Child Protective Services.Of those reported, 20% of the perpetrators were fathers.Children who experience sexual abuse are more likely to develop eating disorders, drug addiction, post‐traumatic stress disorder, and depression.Sex offenders are required to submit their information to a registry that is accessible to the public following the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, but individual states still have the ability to enact their own registration requirements.States are permitted to draft their own custodial rights statutes, some of which allow parents who are registered sex offenders unsupervised access to their child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study tested whether attitudes toward violence mediate the association between intimate partner violence exposure and antisocial behavior across adolescence, and whether cortisol level moderates these pathways in an ethnically diverse sample of 190 boys from low‐income, urban families. Results suggest that a pathway from intimate partner violence exposure at age 12 to antisocial behavior at age 17 is explained by pro‐violence attitudes at age 15. Boys with greater exposure to intimate partner violence endorsed stronger pro‐violence attitudes, which predicted increases in antisocial behavior. Further, the pro‐violence attitudes to antisocial behavior pathway were stronger among boys with heightened versus dampened cortisol levels. Results suggest that violent attitudes are important for understanding the cognitive underpinnings of antisocial behavior following intimate partner violence exposure, particularly in youth with high cortisol levels. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed with respect to targeting malleable child behavior linked to later antisocial behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Both clinicians and forensic practitioners should distinguish parental alienation (rejection of a parent without legitimate justification) from other reasons for contact refusal. Alienated children—who were not abused—often engage in splitting and lack ambivalence with respect to the rejected parent; children who were maltreated usually perceive the abusive parent in an ambivalent manner. The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) in identifying and quantifying the degree of splitting, which may assist in diagnosing parental alienation. Results showed that severely alienated children engaged in a high level of splitting, by perceiving the preferred parent in extremely positive terms and the rejected parent in extremely negative terms. Splitting was not manifested by the children in other family groups. The PARQ may be useful for both clinicians and forensic practitioners in evaluating children of divorced parents when there is a concern about the possible diagnosis of parental alienation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used diathesis-stress and stress-sensitization models to determine whether family maltreatment, street-related traumatic events, stressful life events, and substance use were associated with depressive symptoms in runaway and homeless youths ( RHY) in Los Angeles. Greater severity of depressive symptoms was significantly related to family maltreatment, being exposed to more traumatic stressors during homelessness, and current substance use compared to no substance use. Family maltreatment was also found to moderate the relationship between traumatic stressors and depressive symptoms. Importantly, cumulative exposure to the investigated risk factors at varying levels was associated with more severe depressive symptoms. Using a trauma-informed approach to screen for RHY at risk of depression may pave the way for secondary prevention of major depression in RHY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a group, substance-abusing parents are at risk for maladaptive parenting. The association between substance abuse and parenting may result, in part, from parents' emotional disengagement from the parent-child relationship, which makes perceiving and responding to children's cues more challenging. In this study, we examined whether substance-abusing mothers' levels of disengagement from their relationship with their children (ages 2-44 months), operationalized in two different ways using parenting narratives (representational and linguistic disengagement), prospectively predicted children's engagement and disengagement cues during a structured mother-child interaction. Within a sample of 29 mothers, we tested the hypotheses that greater maternal disengagement at Time 1 would predict a decrease in children's engagement and an increase in children's disengagement at Time 2. Results indicated that representational disengagement predicted a decrease in children's engagement cues whereas linguistic disengagement predicted an increase in children's disengagement cues. Results provide partial support for a reciprocal, iterative process in which mothers and children mutually adjust their emotional and behavioral disengagement with one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The federal government should invest in adopted children who make up the future of the country and are in dire need of rehabilitation and therapy because of their past circumstances. If the government steps in to rescue vulnerable children from inadequate or abusive birth parents by removal, it should also intervene when adopted families are faced with behavioral problems of adopted children that the adopted parents cannot address on their own. Postadoption services need to be accessible and effective to ensure the success of adopted families. Assisting families in crisis postadoption will lower the instances of dissolution and rehoming and keep adoptive families intact. In cases in which postadoption services fail, uniform federal legislation is necessary to make it a federal crime to advertise children for adoption on the Internet without proper certification and state legislation is required to make it a crime to pass on adopted children to strangers without judicial consent, to dissuade Internet rehoming. Internet rehoming of adopted children should be a serious crime as it is tantamount to child trafficking.© 2014 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Key Points for the Family Court Community: Postadoption services need to be more accessible and more narrowly tailored to the needs of adoptive families to ensure the success of adoptions., Better postadoption services create better adoptive families and adoptive parents will not reach the point of dissolution or private Internet rehoming., Adoptive parents should be provided with information regarding all available postadoption resources after adoption is finalized and a government Web site should be created that lists all available resources., The federal government needs to provide funding to states that specifically target postadoption services., A uniform federal statute is required to punish parties who use Internet forums to avoid government oversight and privately rehome their adopted children., States should enact laws that criminalize the unauthorized interstate placements of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The current study examined a temporal cascade linking mothers' history of abuse with their children's internalizing difficulties through proximal processes such as maternal postnatal depressive symptoms and responsive parenting. Participants consisted of 490 mother-child dyads assessed at three time points when children were, on average, 2 months old at Time 1 (T1), 18 months at Time 2 (T2), and 36 months at Time 3 (T3). Maternal abuse history and depressive symptoms were assessed via questionnaires at T1. Observations of responsive parenting were collected at T2 and were coded using a validated coding scheme. Children's internalizing difficulties were assessed in the preschool period using averaged parental reports. Path analysis revealed that maternal physical abuse was associated with depressive symptoms postnatally, which were in turn associated with children's internalizing behavior at 36 months of age. We also found that the association between physical abuse history and responsive parenting operated indirectly through maternal depressive symptoms. These findings remained after controlling for covariates including socioeconomic status, child gender, and age. After accounting for physical abuse history, sexual abuse history was not associated with child internalizing problems either directly or indirectly through maternal depressive symptoms and/or parenting behavior. Thus, mothers' physical abuse history is a risk factor for relatively poor mental health, which is itself predictive of both later parenting behavior and children's internalizing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal substance use has been associated with a range of child risk factors. The study investigated the relationship between engagement with child health services and child protection outcomes for children of substance-using mothers. The sample comprised 119 children of mothers who disclosed opiate, amphetamine or methadone use during a maternity admission between 2000 and 2003. Statutory child protection agency and child health engagement information for the first 2 years of life was obtained. The relationship between type of maternal substance use, child health engagement and child protection outcomes was examined. Of study group infants, 72% were engaged with child health services during the first 2 years of life. Chi-squared analysis showed no significant relationship between child health engagement and child protection reports. Child health engagement was associated with decreased substantiated child protection notifications for children of methadone using mothers, but not for children of illicit substance users. Almost a quarter of identified children of substance-using mothers are not accessing standard child health services in their first 2 years of life. This study provides support for increased attention to the provision of child health services for children of methadone using mothers. Further research into effective intervention strategies for children of illicit substance-using mothers is indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child protection work is complex and demanding and presents both parents and workers with a number of emotional and relationship demands. Although it is recognised that a good working alliance between child protection workers and parents is associated with therapeutic success and service user satisfaction, some current developments, including the growth of an audit culture with its attendant emphasis on targets and performance, appear to undermine the worker's ability to establish good relationships and working alliances. To the extent that poor-quality working relationships and increased emotional distance reduce the worker's capacity to be empathic, levels of stress for both parents and workers are likely to remain high. Heightened stress reduces the capacity of parents and workers to keep at-risk children in mind and in focus. This reduces their safety. The paper revisits the value of containment as a way of processing and managing difficult feelings which, along with more recent therapeutic concepts such as mentalisation, encourages workers to keep the parents' feelings in mind as well as hold the child in mind for the parent as a psychological, meaningful and mentalising being. Helping parents think about their feelings and understand, indeed celebrate, their children as burgeoning, independent psychological entities increases understanding, reduces stress and plays a part in helping keep children safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parent training (PT) is an evidence-based treatment for reducing and preventing child conduct problems and abusive parenting. However, questions have been raised about the dissemination of PT to culturally diverse families who hold different views on childrearing. Group PT was applied in two Chinese immigrant families illustrating strategies for addressing potential cultural barriers. The Incredible Years program builds in therapeutic process elements to address cultural concerns to enhance engagement. In addition, augmenting basic PT with additional skills training can help parents manage stressors common in immigrant families to facilitate uptake of new parenting skills. This implementation experience suggested that high-risk immigrant Chinese parents can be effectively engaged in group PT, even when they are not in treatment voluntarily. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 66:1–15, 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from three studies provide new evidence to support the validity of the Analog Parenting Task (APT) as an instrument to assess risk for harsh, physically aggressive parenting. In this series of studies, there was a strong association between APT scores of expected use and escalation of discipline strategies and self-reported disciplinary attitudes. APT scores were also associated with physical abuse potential as assessed by both a well-established measure of child abuse potential (Child Abuse Potential Inventory) and another instrument designed specifically for use in pre-parent populations (e.g., Adult–Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2). This study provides new psychometric evidence to support the use of the APT to assess harsh parenting. Additionally, these data highlight the connection between acceptance and use of physical disciplinary strategies, propensity for disciplinary escalation, and risk for abuse perpetration. The findings are discussed in the context of Milner's Social Information Processing model [Milner, 2003] of abuse, which suggests that parental selection of disciplinary responding and the monitoring of disciplinary responding are key events in the disciplinary process. The APT may prove a useful adjunct to more commonly used self-report measures to allow for multimethod assessment of risk for punitive parenting. Aggr. Behav. 36:251–260, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning men make of their violence toward intimate partners and to examine if and how these meanings and constructions of violence predicted who drops out of batterer treatment prior to program completion. We used both qualitative and quantitative data collected from 154 men court-mandated to participate in a batterer intervention program. The qualitative findings indicated that the men in this sample minimized and denied responsibility for the violence they used towards their intimate partners while simultaneously rationalizing and justifying their violent behavior. Such findings provide insight into how denial and minimization and, more broadly, men’s constructions of masculinity might predict their tendency to drop out of batterer treatment. Furthermore, building upon our qualitative findings, logistic regression analysis revealed that men who were lower income, no longer intimately involved with the women they abused, and who reported lower levels of physical violence and higher levels of hostility were more likely to drop out of the batterer treatment program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether witnessed community and parental violence represented risk factors for substance use and delinquency among adolescents, beyond the contribution of direct violence and other risk factors. We also examined the role of violence characteristics. Participants were a national sample of 3,614 adolescents. Structured telephone interviews assessed demographics, trauma history, witnessed violence, delinquency, and substance use. While accounting for trauma history and other risk factors, witnessed community and parental violence were associated with delinquency. Community violence was associated with substance use. Chronic violence, knowing the perpetrator, and violence outside of school were correlated with substance use and delinquency among adolescents who witnessed community violence. These findings highlight the importance of targeting witnessed violence in prevention and intervention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the literature on communication between professionals and parents/carers in health and social care. It notes that there is considerable research on doctor–patient communication and counseling, but much less on professionals who visit families in their homes. While there is a large literature on good practice and communication skills, there is little research on the actual encounters themselves. What counts as ‘communication’ in such publications is explored. The paper suggests that there is much to be gained by considering research in discourse analysis and sociolinguistics on professional–client encounters. Examples of some of the key concepts are discussed and an engagement with this literature is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abused children experience high rates of behavior, emotional, and learning problems but infrequently receive treatment. Most services provided to abused children and their families are not based on any clear evidence that they work. A number of evidence-based treatments (EBTs), demonstrated to be safe and effective in treating a range of difficulties that present in children exposed to family violence, are appropriate for schools. We briefly review forms of abuse, describe EBTs appropriate for schools, and present a decision tree for deciding who to treat and how. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from the European Union (EU) DAPHNE project ALC-VIOL (2005–07). The project involved ten EU states (Germany, Austria, England, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Netherlands, Poland and Spain). The research involved interviews with young people aged 12–18 from Germany, Poland, Spain, England and Malta on their experiences of living with parental alcohol misuse and parental violence. The children all had parents involved in treatment for alcohol problems. The study highlights the stressful experiences these children underwent, the effects on them, their coping strategies, and the support that they received and/or wished for, and underlines the need for a more coherent approach to help these children. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many jurisdictions handle domestic violence cases on a one-size-fits-all basis, with a presumption in favor of a finding of child neglect and removal when children are exposed to domestic violence. Such a standard fails to recognize that not all domestic violence is the same and not all families are equally affected. The impact of domestic violence depends on several factors such as the different types of domestic violence the frequency and intensity of the violence, the frequency and extent of the child's exposure, and each family member's unique experiences and characteristics. This view takes the position that parents’ capacity to participate in counseling and services promoting the health and safety of their children varies, as does the appropriateness of children being removed from the home as a result of exposure to domestic violence. Therefore, this Note proposes that states develop a standard for both courts and child protective agencies that carefully examines each domestic violence case using an individualized factual analysis and attempt to mitigate the effects of a child's exposure to domestic violence by means other than a presumption for or against removal (temporary or permanent) in every case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies of combat veterans have examined the relationship between parental satisfaction and PTSD symptoms. These studies found that numbing is associated with substantial decrements in parent–child relationship quality. The current study extends previous work by assessing the effect of PTSD on parent–child relationships in a nationally representative sample of civilian men and women with PTSD resulting from a broad range of trauma. It was hypothesized that PTSD avoidance/numbing symptoms would be predictive of parent–child relationship quality and parent–child conflict. Moreover, these relationships are predicted to hold after controlling for a broad range of support-related variables and work/finance related variables. As hypothesized, after controlling for number of children and respondent-initiated domestic violence, numbing was predictive of increased parent–child aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents who witness interparental violence (IPV) are at increased risk for perpetrating aggressive acts. They are also at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this study, we examined the relation between exposure to maternal vs. paternal physical IPV and adolescent girls' and boys' aggressive behavior toward mothers, fathers, friends, and romantic partners. We also assessed the influence of PTSD (as assessed by the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents-IV (DICA-IV)) on the relation between exposure to IPV and aggressive behavior. Participants were 63 girls and 49 boys, ages 13–18, consecutively admitted to a youth correctional facility or assessment facility designated to serve aggressive and delinquent youth. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate unique relations between exposure to maternal vs. paternal IPV and youth aggression in relationships. Girls who observed their mothers' aggressive behavior toward partners were significantly more aggressive toward friends. Similarly, boys who witnessed their fathers' aggression were significantly more aggressive toward friends. Adolescent girls and boys who observed aggression by mothers toward partners reported significantly higher levels of aggression toward their romantic partners. Approximately one third of our sample met PTSD criteria; the relation between exposure to parental IPV and aggression was stronger for individuals who met criteria for PTSD. The implications of understanding the relations between parents' and their daughters' and sons' use of aggression are discussed within the context of providing support for families in breaking intergenerational patterns of violence and aggression. Aggr. Behav. 32:385–395, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure of an aggressor to the suffering of his/her victim generally inhibits subsequent attacks [e.g. Baron, 1971a] presumably because of an empathic process. Physically abusive parents and individuals at high risk for child physical abuse are thought to present a deficit in empathy [e.g. Milner, Halsey and Fultz, 1995]. The present research was designed to investigate whether high-risk, compared to low-risk, subjects for child physical abuse select more aggressive responses and aggress with more intensity toward a supposed child whose behavior is adequate, inadequate or ambiguous in the presence of the child's pain cues. A second objective was to explore whether high-risk, compared to low-risk, subjects for child physical abuse fail to adequately integrate mitigating information and, therefore, do not inhibit their aggressive behavior following the receipt of mitigating information before or during an inadequate child behavior. Participants were engaged in an experimental task that involved attempting to teach a child how to proceed accurately through a computer-displayed maze and were given the opportunity to send positive (pleasant sounds and happy faces) and negative feedback (mad faces and unpleasant sounds) to the child. Two hundred and fifty undergraduate students participated in the experiment. A 2 × 5 factorial design based on two levels of the participant's risk status (high, low) and five conditions based on the child's behavior and the introduction of mitigating information was employed. As expected, low-risk, compared to high-risk, subjects showed less aggression when mitigating information was provided. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–15, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correlates of authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful parenting were examined within a sample of 1,355 14- to 18-year-olds adjudicated of serious criminal offenses. The sample is composed primarily of poor, ethnic-minority youth living in impoverished urban neighborhoods. As has been found in community samples, juvenile offenders who describe their parents as authoritative are more psychosocially mature, more academically competent, less prone to internalized distress, and less prone to externalizing problems than their peers, whereas those who describe their parents as neglectful are less mature, less competent, and more troubled. Juvenile offenders who characterize their parents as either authoritarian or indulgent typically score somewhere between the two extremes, although those from authoritarian homes are consistently better functioning than those from indulgent homes. These patterns did not vary as a function of adolescents' ethnicity or gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the adverse effects on professionals who regularly work with very abusive families and seeks to identify what protective factors in the work team and its management mitigate these effects. The author compared the behavioral consequences of living in a dysfunctional family with the consequences of working with a dysfunctional team. She is hoping that she will: identify practical things that are doable; protect staff from the all too familiar costs of such work. Finally, she contended that mentoring of future managers has often been a hit-and-miss process in the caring professions.

Background: Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) report greater stress and negative health consequences than nonabused women. Although an association between psychological stress and altered immune function has been shown, IPV studies have not investigated this relationship. Objective: This study explored the association of IPV with mental health symptoms and an immune marker to determine if posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms mediate the effect of IPV on pro-inflammatory (IFN-γ) cytokine levels. Methods: A cross-sectional, comparative design was used to compare 62 women with IPV and 39 nonabused women. Results: Mean IFN-γ values were higher in abused women and in women with current PTSD symptoms. There were no significant relationships with potential confounding variables that could provide an alternative explanation for the increase in production of proinflammatory cytokines. Conclusions: PTSD symptoms mediate the association between IPV and IFN-γ levels and may partially explain the association of mental health symptoms with physical health sequelae in IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence can interfere with women’s ability to work, and may result in loss of welfare benefits and poorer economic outcomes. Previous studies showing no effect of domestic violence on employment could be a result of the failure to control for some individual characteristics; therefore we use fixed-effects models with three waves of Women’s Employment Study (WES) data to control for unobservable time-invariant individual-specific characteristics. Included in our analyses were 598 women, from an urban county in Michigan who were on the welfare rolls in February of 1997, all of whom completed 3 waves of interviews. Our fixed effects regression results show that domestic violence significantly reduced the annual work hours of a respondent. Mental and physical health problems do not completely mediate this relationship. Our results support efforts to address domestic violence within the welfare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rates of both intimate partner violence and poor health are high among low-income women This paper examines relationships among abuse, health, and employment stability using data from a 3-year study of over 1000 female welfare recipients in Illinois. Results demonstrate the importance of accounting for both recency and chronicity of intimate partner violence and understanding the mediational role of health in the relationship between intimate partner violence and employment. Chronic intimate partner violence is associated with poor health, whereas recent intimate partner violence is associated with unstable employment. Mediations analyses suggest that health does not mediate the effects of abuse on employment stability over a 3-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do victims of domestic violence want to retain decision-making power, which critics say may be taken away by no-drop, mandatory-arrest procedures? Using procedural justice theory as a theoretical framework for the discussion, the authors review the research on the needs and expectations of victims of domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence involves the abuse, whether emotional, physical, sexual and/or economic, of one or more family (or ex-family) members by another family member within the home or wider domestic context. It is typically associated with increasing entrapment, injury, medical complaints, psycho-social problems and (sometimes) unsuccessful help-seeking. Research evidence demonstrates that domestic abuse is prolific, prolonged, impacts physically, emotionally and economically upon women and children in particular, over the long-term including well after they are ‘safe’ from the perpetrator. Furthermore, such abuse is widespread and happens all over the world. The findings reported here are from an observational population survey conducted in one British city to assess awareness of domestic violence. While there appears to be a broadly held and well-informed definition of what actions constitute domestic violence and why it occurs, there are striking differences in perspective concerning public awareness of the frequency of domestic violence and knowledge of its importance as a safety issue indicating that it is still not seen generally as a serious social problem. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals who were abused as children and have spontaneously, without intervention, been able to change their cognitive and behavioral patterns such that they do not abuse their own children represent a heretofore untapped source of information and understanding about the processes of conceptual change and resilience. This pilot study investigates the nature of this conceptual change as an exemplar of resilience. Birth order, gender, locus of control, and coping behaviors emerged as areas needing further study. Additionally, the belief on the part of the abusing parents that abuse was not wrong needs further investigation as a possible precursor to this particular context for conceptual change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to identify factors that could contribute to intergenerational physical abuse, the specific childhood disciplinary experiences of adolescents and young adults were assessed, and these childhood experiences were related to the subjects' assessment as to whether specific disciplinary tactics were abusive or appropriate in child rearing. Consistent with previous research, few maltreated persons viewed their own experiences as abusive. Moreover, personal experience with a disciplinary event was associated with a decreased tendency to view that particular form of discipline as inappropriate. Finally, a history of severe physical punishment, failure to acknowledge an abusive history when it had occurred, and adult attitudes regarding physical discipline were associated with selecting more punitive disciplinary strategies when individuals were faced with child misbehavior in an analog parenting task. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which examined the effectiveness of a parent education intervention for at-risk families in the United States. Factors associated with child maltreatment; Methodology; Results and discussion.

The article presents a report on child protection. Over many years, numerous attempts have been made to educate children concerning the risks to their physical and personal safety. A child's precocious knowledge of sexual matters has sometimes been interpreted as a potential indicator of an abusive relationship. Such interpretations are weakened by the uncertainty over what constitutes age-appropriate or precocious knowledge of sexual matters. The first paper by Brilleslijper-Kater and Baartman commendably explores the important issue of delineating age appropriate knowledge over the age range 2-6 years, and reports no evidence of precocity amongst their sample of, they infer, non-abused children. Despite a plethora of child abuse prevention programmes, all with the common goal of raising safety awareness, not only in children, but also in parents and educators, there has not been universal consensus on the best approach to this delicate topic. Concepts such as stranger, secret, good and bad touch have been central to safety training programmes, but teaching such abstract concepts is not easy. The ability to make good/bad distinctions requires attribution skills, and for a young child, such judgments are made on the basis of the perceived manner or consequences of an action, rather than by its intent.

Focuses on a study which evaluated the effects of a short-term parenting course for homeless parents to decrease their parenting stress and potential for abusive parenting behaviors. Review of related literature; Parent domain subscale high scores and total domain risk score; Conclusions.

The rate of different types of maltreatment of children younger than the age of 16 by parents was investigated among a sample of 119 Japanese nonconsulting adolescents. Emotional neglect, threat, putting to shame, slapping, punching with a fist, hitting with an implement, and burning by the father or the mother were reported to have occurred at least several times a year by 21.0%, 26.1%, 14.3%, 40.3%, 25.2%, 14.3%, and 0.8% of the participants, respectively. These figures were much higher than previous estimates from medical and social agency reports in Japan. Some associations were found between specific categories of child maltreatment and the lifetime prevalence of different types of DSM-III-R psychopathology. Among male adolescents, Generalized Anxiety Disorder was associated with being put to shame, punched, or hit with an implement by the mother, while chronic/recurrent Major Depression was associated with being put to shame by either the father or by the mother. Among female adolescents, chronic/recurrent Major Depression was associated with being emotionally neglected or threatened by the father and being slapped by the mother, while single-episode Major Depression was associated only with being slapped by the mother. These figures suggest that childhood maltreatment has effects on psychopathology among adolescents, particularly emotional maltreatment associated with chronic/recurrent Major Depression. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses findings from empirical research to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the child protection procedures in the UK. Discontinuities in which child protection plans were not implemented arose because of limitations in the plans made, obstacles to implementation and weaknesses in the conduct of review meetings which rarely questioned the management of cases even when it was clearly deficient. The construction of risk made during the investigation carried over into the initial conference, fed into decisions about registration and had an enduring influence on the way in which later risks to children were interpreted. However, this meant that new information which challenged this view of risk was often ignored. Continuities were also evident between adequate plans for children’s safety made at initial conferences and their subsequent protection. However, when children remained at home with an abusing parent, this remained true only when a new key worker had been allocated at the time of the conference. These initial plans also had an impact on the interventions provided, especially those for treatment. These findings emphasize the importance of adequate planning for children and families at initial child protection conferences and the need for an overhaul of the conduct of reviews if they are to be used more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the number of child abuse and neglect reports has soared over the past two decades, family clinicians and researchers have increasingly implemented and evaluated parent training programs designed to insure capable parenting. Referral to a parenting program is common when parents are found to be maltreating their children. Yet, what is the empirical evidence to suggest these programs are effective in changing parent behavior? This paper reviews the current research on the effectiveness of parent training programs aimed at parents at high risk for child maltreatment. It summarizes this literature and draws implications for designing more effective programs to meet the needs of this difficult-to-reach group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on the study which examines the effects of a structured, time-limited parent training group on abusive or potentially abusive parents. Characteristics of abusive parents; Methodology of the study; Conclusion.

This article presents information related to characteristics that distinguish abusive from nonabusive parents. Social scientists have been attempting for many years to identify those characteristics that distinguish abusive from nonabusive parents. Most of these attempts have been far from scientifically acceptable due to methodological problems. The first approach is based on a model, which postulates that the parent responds to the crying infant primarily to reduce his or her own distress. The second approach to discriminating abusive and nonabusive parents stems from the development of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory.

This article focuses on abusive parents. As child abuse becomes an increasingly visible international problem, identifying parents at risk for abuse becomes an important task for mental health professionals. An initial stage in this task is developing reliable screening devices with which clinicians might identify potential abusers for prevention programs or identify those clients who already have been indicated and have a potential for repeated abusive incidents. Although there have been attempts to construct psychometrically sound assessment devices, these have not been employed widely for a variety of reasons.

The article discusses clinical application of the PD, MA and (OH) experimental MMPI scales to further understanding of abusive parents. Generalizing from such subscale names and items within each scale, increased knowledge of maltreating parents is found. The presence of marital disharmony and family stress may contribute to an already existing intrapsychic tension system. Physical assault or neglect of a child may be seen clearly as displaced hostility and rage, which many times should be examined as a function of an impaired, unhappy husband-wife relationship.

The purpose of this article is two fold: first, to identify characteristic MMPI profiles in order to differentiate between a sample of abusive parents and a comparable sample of nonabusive parents; secondly, to differentiate personality characteristics within subcategories of those parents who had various degrees of responsibility with regard to the abuse, neglect, or maltreatment of their child. The results have shown characteristic profiles that differentiate between abusive and nonabusive parents and even differentiate within samples of abusing mothers and fathers. Not one homogeneous profile pattern on the MMPI identifies the abusing parent.

In cases of severe physical abuse of babies, the usual dynamics uncovered are a parental history of abuse and deprivation, lack of family support, extreme family stressors, bonding failure to the baby, and/or parental mental illness, including depression or psychosis. This paper presents four cases, from a sample of several hundred abusive families, that do not encompass the usual "abusive" dynamics outlined above. In all four cases, the abuse was perpetrated in the first few months postpartum, against a background of good physical care of the baby, an apparently adequate bond to the baby, and negative psychiatric findings in the abusing parent. The similarities within these four cases were striking, particularly the use of denial to deal with conflicts and long-standing difficulty in expressing any ambivalence in attachment relationships. An explanation of the complex dynamics involved in such cases is offered, and the difficulties in detection and intervention are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although not all abused children grow up to, be abusive parents, it is well known that people who were severely mistreated by their parents as compared to those who were not are at higher risk for mistreating their children. It has also been shown that abusive parents often have unrealistic expectations for their children-expectations based on distorted perceptions of their children's needs, feelings, and abilities, In this paper, we examine the utility of new methods developed in social psychology to study: (1) the impact of abuse on the structure and content of interpersonal and self-perception and (2) the interrelationships among an abused mother's social and self-perception, the quality of her interactions with her child, and the child's development. Case studies will be presented to illustrate how these new methods reflect risk for abuse as predicted independently by clinicians treating the cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group therapy participation and religious conversion have been cited as sources of personal growth by a number of formerly abusive parents. The parallels in the dynamics of change for the two kinds of experiences are discussed in the context of the factors thought to lead to abuse. The data discussed were drawn from interviews conducted in a follow-up study of recidivism and discontinuation of abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This second paper on the findings and recommendations of the National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of Child Abuse discusses the need to create ‘child friendly communities’ in which children and young people feel loved, valued and listened to and their needs are effectively met. Such communities are essential if we are to prevent child abuse—only in such environments will children and young people feel free to take action on concerns which they have, including child abuse. Consideration is given to ways in which communities are currently hostile or unfriendly towards children and how these factors can be overcome. The characteristics of child-friendly communities are described and examples given of initiatives which are supportive of children and young people. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes a system for reviewing child abuse deaths in Great Britain. During the 1970s and 1980s, a small number of fatal child abuse cases which had aroused public concern became the subject of public inquiries. The present system has been a considerable improvement on the public inquiry process. Reviews are carried out on many more cases, more speedily and at much less cost. They tend to be conducted in a more constructive atmosphere so that the findings can enter the public domain in a thoughtful way. Feedback to the Department of Health has also enabled collection of valuable information about child abuse and child protection practice. In the United States, 45 states currently have local and statewide child death review teams whose purpose is to understand and prevent fatal child abuse. They review all children's deaths in which there may be any suspicion that maltreatment played a part. The closest parallel in the United Kingdom is probably the system in Leeds, where health and social services personnel conduct a detailed inquiry into each unexpected death of a child between the age of 7 days and 2 years. Information is gathered for the inquiry by specially trained health visitors, who interview the family, and from hospital and GP records, and the team's aim is to assist future prevention by a better understanding of the circumstances and factors which contributed to the death.

The article discusses the use of the term non-abusing parent and its negative consequences for policy and practice. The term has been widely adopted to refer to one parent, usually the woman, where a child has been sexually abused by the other, or to both mother and father where a child has been sexually abused by a non-parent. The use of the term non-abusing parent has somewhat mixed implications. Children's needs in the aftermath of child sexual abuse are considerably more complex and wide-ranging than simply to have the offender absent from their homes. Responsibility for meeting the needs cannot be left solely to their mothers or even to their mothers and fathers without detriment to children. The mothers and fathers have their own issues which need to be differentiated and attended to following child sexual abuse. Feminist perspectives have been critical of the tendency in policy on child abuse, at least until recently and sometimes still, to treat parents as a unit, equally the problem by definition. It is particularly unsatisfactory for child sexual abuse, where abuse is often kept secret from all but the offender and the child and the majority of incidents of abuse are not perpetrated by either the mother or the father of the child.

The totalitarian system in Romania survived for 45 years through generalized and repeated cycles of physical and mental abuse directed towards the population as a whole. Today's parents show all the signs of abuse, from denial, minimizing, rationalizing and selective memory to anger, fear and shame. They are also experiencing the aftereffects of abuse, such as suspicion, resentment, hopelessness, low self-esteem and the tendency to continue the abusive cycle, The parents and educators, who represent the essential part of a child's small universe and who should be able to shelter them from the effects of economic depression and lack of certitude and security which characterize the transition period, have all been victims of abuse. The abusive cycle is difficult to break, because one of the ways of survival and self-protection during the past communist regime was acceptance, compliance and lack of change. The paper presents some of the positive steps which could break the abusive cycle, such as: confession, physical and mental separation from the past, designating the guilty and a positive attitude towards oneself and towards society. These steps could help the adult to handle more easily the sad realities of the transition period and to reduce the impact of its unhealthy climate on children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the needs of siblings following a child abuse death. The death of a child from abuse is, uncommon and the British Department of Health receives approximately one case review a week. When it does occur, professionals must assess the needs of the surviving children in the family and especially whether they should ever return to the care of their parents. A related issue arises in later years when another baby is born to the parents and the risk of harm to that child must be addressed. The circumstances of a child's death can vary widely, including repeated violent assaults over a prolonged period, an isolated impulsive loss of self-control, chronic neglect, abandonment of a newly born baby or psychotic delusions about the child. Each case will have unique features that will influence decisions about surviving or subsequent children, but a number of assessment criteria can be identified that are guiding principles in all cases. In the majority of cases there will be a history of maltreatment, which was not confined to the child who died, with all the siblings having suffered some degree of violent or neglectful abuse.