Assessing the child's role in child abuse : a behavioral approach

Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-34)Predominated by the fields of medicine and psychiatry, most interpretive models of the phenomena called ???child abuse??? typically see the child as the mere target of abuse. Traditional or psychodynamic approaches then have generally focused their attention to the diagnosis and treatment of the abusive parent. As more and more investigative research studies have emerged within the science of psychology, additional and more comprehensive models have been posited.\ud This study relies on current alternative assumptions of social learning theory which not only recognize the critical importance of interactive patterns between parent and child, leading to abusive behavioral patterns, but also affords recognition to the child's own behavior as a potentially natural elicitor of abuse.\ud It was hypothesized that abused children would elicit more negative emotional responses and evaluations than non-abused children when engaged in the same types of behaviors. An attempt was also made to isolate, if possible, any specific behaviors or characteristics of the abused child which would assist in developing more comprehensive analyses of the problem of abuse and suggest more effective and innovative programs aimed at the problem.\ud A videotape was produced depicting equal numbers of abused and non-abused children engaged in similar positive and negative behaviors. A total of 46 female subjects rated their emotional and evaluative reactions to each of the behavioral situations.\ud The results of the study supported the hypothesis that abused children were significantly distinguished from evenly matched non-abused children along several dimensions. The group of abused children did elicit more negative emotional and evaluative reactions. In addition, several significant distinguishing characteristics were detected