The child-abusing parent: A psychological review.

Abstract

Review of professional opinions in the literature reveals that (a) the abusing parent was himself raised with some degree of deprivation; (b) the abusing parent brings to his role as parent mistaken notions of child rearing; (c) there is present in the parent a general defect in character structure allowing aggressive impulses to be expressed too freely; and (d) while socioeconomic factors might sometimes place added stresses on basic personality weakness, these stresses are not of themselves sufficient or necessary causes of abuse. A critique is made of a recent demographic survey in light of the foregoing data.

Child abuse and neglect: Usefulness of the animal data.

“…Early studies emphasized the view that abusive and neglectful parents suffered from some form of psychopathology or personality disturbance (Kempe et al, 1962;Steele & Pollack, 1968). Subsequent studies, however, found that abusive parents could not be reliably identified from nonabusive parents on the basis of personality measures alone (Gelles, 1973;Spinetta & Rigler, 1972;Wolfe, 1985). Sociological models of child maltreatment emphasized the role of environmental factors such as economic deprivation and lack of social support (Garbarino, 1977;Gelles, 1973;Gil, 1970).…”

The shifting conceptualization of elder abuse in the United States: from social services, to criminal justice, and beyond

“…With the power and authority of physicians raising the profile of child abuse (along with other important factors), society rallied around the recognition of child abuse (Parton, 1979). While initially conceptualized as stemming from parental psychopathology (Kempe et al, 1962;Spinetta and Rigler, 1972), child abuse (predominately child physical abuse at the time) was quickly radically re-conceptualized as an issue associated with parental stress (Gelles, 1973), and then more comprehensively refined into an ecological model which placed parental culpability in a larger societal context (Belsky, 1993). For example, prominent at the time was the belief that every parent was vulnerable to abusing their children under the right circumstances (Friedrich and Boriskin, 1976).…”

Le rôle de la relation conjugale dans l’abus et la négligence d’enfants : vers une étude écologique

“…On a cru pendant longtemps que les parents abuseurs étaient psychotiques ou présentaient des pathologies sévères. Toutefois, Spinetta et Rigler (1972) concluent leur revue de la documentation de toutes les variables de personnalité étudiées en estimant que les parents abuseurs présentent rarement des troubles psychologiques sévères. Ces parents se distinguent plutôt au niveau de certains traits de personnalité.…”

“…Ainsi, comparativement aux parents non abuseurs, ils semblent nettement plus rigides et colériques (Milner et Winberly, 1980;Spinetta, 1978) et manquant de maturité émotive, c'est-à-dire qu'ils manifestent un faible seuil de tolérance à la frustration et une faiblesse marquée au niveau du contrôle de leurs impulsions (GiI, 1970;Milner et Wimberly, 1979;Bolton et Bolton, 1988;Spinetta et Rigler, 1972). De plus, leur estime de soi apparaît généralement très faible (Anderson et Lauderdale, 1982;Evans, 1980) et ils sont davantage victimes de symptômes dépressifs et de malaises physiques et émo-tifs (Evans, 1980;Kinard, 1982;Lahey et al, 1984;Langevin et al, 1985).…”