Sixteen preschoolers from homes with conjugal violence were compared with 16 controls from nonabusive homes. Children of abused mothers performed more poorly than controls on three of four measures of empathy (role enactment, social inference, and role taking). Implications for social development were noted. (CL)

Objective: To examine attitudes, conflicts, images, circumstances, and time-period effects associated with corporal punishment and other forms of adult-to-child violence during the early 20th century in the United States. Method: A sample of 147 letters, referencing corporal punishment and dating from 1924 to 1939, were analyzed using both…

Objective:: This paper discusses the ways in which existing microeconomic theories of partner abuse, intra-family bargaining, and distribution of resources within families may contribute to our current understanding of physical child abuse. The empirical implications of this discussion are then tested on data from the 1985 National Family Violence…

Forty-five abusive parents were compared on 22 parent, child, and treatment variables posited to bear on reabuse. No one variable alone was strongly associated with reabuse, but interactions involving several variables (e.g., income source, marital status, and abuser's personal history) significantly differentiated between reabusers and…

Descriptive case information evaluated by 68 medical personnel included a fall from a highchair as the explanation of an injury, with or without injury pattern data obtained for such falls from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Respondents given the CPSC data appropriately had less confidence in the explanation. (Author/JW)

A search was made of confidential health department records in Great Britain for abused children, or children at risk for abuse, with siblings who had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). An association was found between child abuse and about 10 percent of deaths of children diagnosed as SIDS. (BRM)

Causes of child abuse by parents are discussed. A therapy program in Buenos Aires (Argentina) for abusive parents is described. The program utilizes self-help groups as part of the therapeutic plan and has found them to be promising. Referral, types of interactions with the groups, and short-, medium-, and long-term objectives are discussed. (BRM)

Data analyses on 3,346 parents with a minor child living at home found that 63 percent reported one or more instances of verbal aggression. Children (of both sexes and all ages) who experienced this frequently exhibited higher rates of physical aggression, delinquency, and interpersonal problems than other children. (BRM)

A proportion of abusive families are resistive to treatment and reabuse their children (various studies cite rates of 16 to 60 per cent). Factors associated with poor treatment outcome include persistent denial of abuse, lack of empathy, use of severe types of abuse, and previous violent acts. (Author/JDD)

Interviews with nationally representative samples of American (N=1,146) and Swedish (N=1,168) families revealed no significant differences between the countries in reported severe or abusive violence toward their children, in spite of the passage of an antispanking law in Sweden. In general, Swedish parents reported using less violence than…

A model of child abuse/neglect is described, in which the perpetrator, victim, and observer all contribute to precipitating and sustaining the maltreatment. The three form a triangle which rotates with time and circumstance. There are also components of the perpetrator, victim, and observer within each individual, creating triangles within…

A study of 123 families examined the role of parental stress in physically abusive and nonabusive families with conduct-disordered children. Parental stress was found to play an important role in abusive families. Physically abusive families were found to have lower incomes, younger mothers with less education, a history of child abuse, and more…