Session 8 Abuse and neglect: etiology, consequences, legal context. The Illinois Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. The intergenerational transmission of violence hypothesis. Is child abuse overreported or underreported?
 

• In 1995, over 3 million (3,111,000) children were reported for child abuse and neglect to child protective service (CPS) agencies in the United States. 

 
• represents a 2% increase over the number of children reported in 1994.

 
• attribute much of the recent increase in reporting to greater public awareness of and willingness to report child maltreatment, as well as changes in how states collected or defined a reportable act of maltreatment (Lung & Daro, 1996). 

 
• Best estimates of U.S. children 

 
• 4.6 % reported as victims of child maltreatment 

 
• child abuse reporting levels increased 49% between 1986 and 1995

 
• 2.7 % Estimated incidence of maltreatment

 
• 1.5 % substantiated/founded by CPS

 
• 32-40 % of reported cases of child maltreatment are substantiated or founded

 
• difference is in duplicate reports

 

• Reports
• 25% physical abuse 
• 11 sexual abuse 
• 54 neglect
• 3 emotional maltreatment 
• 7 other forms of maltreatment 

• considerable bias in child abuse reporting rates (Gelles & Cornell, 1990)

 
• poor and minority children are over-reported

 
• middle class children under-reported

 
• child abuse rates declined 47% between 1975 and 1985 from 36 per 1,000 to 19 per 1,000 [Gelles & Cornell, 1990]:

 
• rate for black child increased (statistically insig.)

 
• Parent report of abusive behavior in the general population

___________________________________________________________________
 

Violent Behavior Per Cent Past Year Percent Ever
 

Threw something 3.1 % 4.5 %

Pushed, grabbed, shoved 28.2 33.6

Slapped, spanked 55.7 74.6

Kicked, bit, hit 1.5 2.1

Hit with object 9.7 14.4

Beat up (multiple blows) .6 1.0

Burned, scalded .4 .6

Threatened with knife/gun .2 .3

Used knife/gun .2 .3
 

Parent Behavior Toward Child in Past 12 Months

1985 Random Sample 3,359 Adults With Children
 
 
 

• Child fatalities

 
• In 1995, an estimated 1,215 child abuse and neglect related fatalities were confirmed by CPS agencies. 

 
• Since 1985, the rate of child abuse fatalities has increased by 39%. 

 
• 40% of deaths resulted from neglect, 49% from physical abuse and 11% from a combination of neglectful and physically abusive parenting. 

 
• Approximately 43% of these deaths occurred to children known to child protective service agencies as current or prior clients.

 
• Child abuse fatalities over past 20 years have declined 63% 
• 3,000 to 1,100

• factors (and non-factors) associated with victims 

 
• age is only factor predictive of abuse:
• boys: younger abused more than older
• girls: older abused more than younger

 
• factors (and non-factors) associated with parents

 
• No consistent abuser profile

 
• Single parents seem to be more abusive 
• effect disappears when income is controlled
• most abusers are poor single women

 
• Step-parents seem to be more abusive
• they are not

 
• Large families seem to be more abusive
• curvilinear rate, with low rates in only child and large families, and peak abuse at 5 children

 
• Mothers abuse children more often (60%) than fathers
• effect disappears when time spent with children is considered

 
• African Americans are believed to abuse more often than whites

 
• Rates used to be equal (1975) but in 1985, rate of violence in Black families was greater

 
• Effect disappears when income is controlled

 
• Economics is best predictor of child abuse
• Income is best predictor
• Working mothers are no more likely to abuse children than mothers who are home with children

 
• Stress is a predictor of child abuse

 
• Social isolation is a predictor of child abuse

 

• the premier hypothesis in the family violence field (per Widom) is the intergenerational transmission of violence, aka the "cycle of violence" notion
• asking abused adults if they were abused as children cannot be used to estimate the intergenerational transmission rate because . . . 

 
• It overestimates the transmission rate because those people who were abused as children but not abusive as adults are not sampled

 
• Egeland believes adults who were abused underestimate childhood abuse because

 
• they believe physical punishment is normal

 
• they idealize their childhoods

 
• rate of transmission is 25-35% (Kaufman & Zigler, 1987)

 
• 35% is < 50%

 
• 35% is >> 2%, the rate of child abuse in the general population

 
• victim of abuse is 15X as likely to be abusive as a non-victim

 
• mothers who break the cycle of violence differ from those who do not by:

 
• received emotional support from a non-abusive adult during childhood

 
• had therapy at some point in life

 
• had a satisfying relationship with a mate (Egeland, Jacobvitz, Sroufe, 1988)

 
• Egeland finds a rate of 40% transmission rate for abused children -> abusive parents

 
• abusive (40%) : of 47 mothers abused as children, 40% were abusive of their children

 
• Straus found a rate of 18% because he used only 2-parent families with kids between 3 and 17

 
• peak period is toddler to pre-school

 
• supportive (3%): of 35 mothers judged to have emotionally supportive parents, only 3% maltreated her children (3% transmission)
• there is also evidence that good-quality parenting is transmitted across generations

 
• neutral (9%): of mothers who had neither abusive nor supportive families, 9% were in the maltreatment group.

 
• factors associated with breaking the cycle (compare abusive former abuse victims to non-abusive former abuse victims):

 
• availability of emotionally supportive individuals (e.g. foster parents or relatives)

 
• in intact, stable, satisfying contemporary relationship

 
• had psychotherapy as an adolescent

 
• aware of how early life experiences impact their current life

 
• factor associated with NOT breaking the cycle of abuse

 
• dissociate or split off the abusive experience rather than integrate (idealize, forget, normalize)

 
• protective factors (Hunter & Kilstrom):

 
• extensive social supports

 
• physically healthy babies

 
• non-ambivalent feelings about their children's birth

 
• openly angry about their own victimization

 
• able to give detailed accounts of their victimization

 
• abused by only one parent; supportive relationship with one parent

 
• influence of history of abuse upon subsequent parenting cannot be separated from the effects of poverty, stress, and social isolation

 
• the broader the definition of abuse, the stronger the apparent link 
• Hegeland's estimate was originally 70% but revised to 40% by excluding marginal cases of poor parenting

• Is maltreatment underreported or over-reported? . . . It depends

 
• under-reported in middle class

 
• over-reported in poor people, minorities

 
• child abuse reporting increased 225% in the period 1976-1987 

 
• 669,000 in 1976 

 
• 2,178,000 in 1987 +225%

 
• 3,111,000 in 1995, +365%) 

 
• Theory
• Adult psychopathology (less than 10% of CPA perps are mentally ill)
• Systemic/interactional
• Social learning-forms the basis for most interventions
• Situational/Social conditions
• poverty
• social isolation
• stress
• Cultural approval

 

 
 
 

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT (from Straus slides http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2 (CP66)

• CP (1) Use of physical force (2) with the intention of causing bodily pain (3) but not injury (4) for purposes of correction or control

 
• e.g. spank, hand slap, shove, grab or squeeze hard, twist ear etc.
• dimensions:
• instrumental v. expressive
• impulsive v. controlled
• severity (degree of pain, risk of injury)
• chronicity

 
• Incidence/prevalence

 
• 84% of US adults agree w/ statement "It is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking" (1986)
• 1897 illustration on parenting shows way to spank child is bare-butt with a hairbrush
• Prevalence of CP by child age: 
• newborn--34%
• 1-67%
• 2-81%
• 3-87%
• 4-94%
• 5-94%
• 6-68%
• 7-87%
• 8-85%
• 13-43%
• 16-27%
• 17-13%

 
• Chronicity of CP of teenagers past year (#times used CP; n=2,715 adults)
• Mothers-6
• Fathers-5

 
• Multi-cultural
• 77% of 186 societies studied (Barry et al, 1980) use CP
• US is in 75^th percentile in terms of severity and chronicity

 
• American children are raised with more violence than many people believe:
• more prevalent: 94% 
• more chronic: <3 times per week>
• more severe: 28% use implement for CP
• for a longer time: 14% of 17y/o, 32% of 13y/o

 
• CP and violence

 
• positive curvilinear reln between CP during survey year and probability of high violence toward sibling (data from parents)
• none => p=0.05
• 2x => p=0.1
• 10-19x => p=0.2
• 30+x => p=0.4

 
• physical attacks on other children at school 2x as likely if mother used CP in previous 6 mos.
• no CP => M=2 attacks
• CP => M=4-5 attacks
• physical abuse => M=8.5 attacks

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• Spanking in previous week (t1) increases antisocial behavior scores at t2 (children age 6-9) controlling for t1 antisocial scores, cognitive stimulation, parent emotional support, gender, SES)
• 1x => +6 minority, 0 white
• 2x => +7 minority, +2 white
• 3⁺x => +12 minority, +16 white

 
• Frequency of CP by mother as a child increases probability of adult approval of husband slapping wife 

CPParents Non Violent Parents Violent

0 25% 33%

3-5x 30 40

>20x 37 48 
 

• The more CP as adolescent, the greater the probability of adult wife beating

CP Probability 

0 7% 

1x 14

2x 15

3-5x 16

6-9x 25

10-19 17

20+ 23
 

• The more CP as adolescent, the greater the probability of adult child abuse

 

0 17% 11%

1x 18 12

2x 20 14

3-5x 22 16

6-9x 24 18

10-19 26 19

20-29 29 22

30+32 24

• The more CP as adolescent, the greater the probability of community violence as a teen (adjusted for SES)

 

1x 12% 4%

2x 11 4

3-5x 18 11

6-10x 15 6

11-20 31 10

20+ 48 22
 

• Violence by teachers also counts
• States in which teachers are allowed to hit children have a higher rate of student violence
• States in which teachers are allowed to hit children have a 40% higher murder rate 
• There is a direct relationship between the national endorsement of CP by teachers and the per-capita military expenditures in 10 European countries (controlling for Gross National Product)

 
• The more CP, the greater the chances of clinical depression as an adult, regardless of whether or not the parents were violent
• CP has a stronger relationship to adult depression than the following: violence between parents, education of parents, community violence, age, SES, frequency of sex partners
• If we ended physical abuse of children, we would reduce the amount of clinical depression by 250,000 in the US; if we ended CP, we could reduce the nymber of depression cases by 1 million

 
• There is an inverse relationship between the frequency of CP and the development of conscience (i.e. if parent's spank to teach right from wrong, it doesn't work)

 
• Link between CP by parents and violence is usually ignored
• The following do not say to not use CP: US public schools, Stopm Child Abuse America, US National Advisory Board on Child Abuse
• Only 9% of child development texts advise not using CP (0% before 1985) 

• Treatment of CPA/maltreatment

 
• Child protective services-"responding to allegation, not need"
• safety, not risk
• Psychological tx
• parent training
• anger management
• stress management
• all shown effective in their domain
• Family Intervention
• Frx and Family preservation
• limited research support
• no more effective parent training
• Community Intervention
• Social networks & Home visiting reduce isolation
• Economic aid
• Child Care/head start