Child abuse & neglect
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Child abuse & neglect · Apr 1996
Moderating effects of physical abuse and perceived social support on the potential to abuse.
This study investigated the moderating effects of perceived prepubertal social support on the relationship between prepubertal childhood physical abuse and child abuse potential as well as on the relationship between a childhood history of abuse and conflict and depth in adult relationships. Three hundred and sixty-nine undergraduate men and women were classified as abused or nonabused based on their responses to the Childhood History Questionnaire. ⋯ When social support was perceived to be high, abused and nonabused individuals did not differ in the potential to abuse or in the ratings of the depth of their relationships with parents. Implications of these findings for the intergenerational transmission of abuse are discussed.
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Child abuse & neglect · Apr 1996
Sexual abuse evaluations in the emergency department: is the history reliable?
The authors assessed agreement on perpetrator identification obtained at two interviews of child victims of sexual abuse. We reviewed charts for 141 children who had undergone both a screening interview by an emergency department physician and an investigative interview by an interdisciplinary team specializing in child sexual abuse evaluation. For 107 (76%) cases, information was consistent; for instance, identification occurred at both interviews or at neither interview. ⋯ No significant differences were found when data for interview site and perpetrator identification were analyzed by gender of child, time interval between assault and screening interview, time interval between the two interviews, relationship of the alleged perpetrator to the child, performance of the investigative interview on an inpatient versus outpatient basis, and report of genital contact. In conclusion, perpetrator identification obtained during emergency department screening interviews usually agreed with information obtained at the subsequent investigative interview. The investigative interview was most helpful in identification of perpetrators when the child was not the source of the history obtained in the emergency department.
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Child abuse & neglect · May 1995
Personality characteristics of father/perpetrators and nonoffending mothers in incest families: individual and dyadic analyses.
Clinical reports suggest that mothers and fathers in incestuous families exhibit characteristic personality traits. Typically the father/perpetrator is described as powerful and domineering, the mother weak and submissive. The present study examined individual personality characteristics of 65 nonoffending mothers and 94 father/perpetrators, and used canonical correlations and multiple regression analyses to examine patterns of personality traits occurring in 63 pairs of fathers and mothers in which there was acknowledged child sexual abuse by the fathers. ⋯ At the dyadic level, no evidence for a pervasive "dominant-submissive" pairing was found. Results indicated that father/perpetrator traits tended to be similar to traits of nonoffending mothers. Forensic, clinical, and research implications of the findings are discussed.