Emotional and evaluative reaction to abused and non-abused children performing positive and negative behavior.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 42-45)According to social learning theory, the physical\ud abuse of children emanates from the interaction of personality,\ud behavioral, and environmental variables. Interest\ud in the possible roles of children in establishing and/or\ud maintaining abusive behavior is consistent with this multidimensional\ud approach. On the basis of clinical observations,\ud it has been asserted that abusive children may\ud play active roles in provoking anger and abuse. The\ud present investigation was conceived in order to help to\ud explicate the etiology of abusive behavior by testing hypotheses\ud derived from the social learning/interactional\ud theory of child abuse. This thesis was a partial replication\ud of Revitzer's (1978) investigation of the reactions of non-abusive parents to the same stimulus materials.\ud The emotional and evaluative reactions of child\ud protective service workers, along with their proficiency at\ud identification of abused children, were investigated in the\ud context of a videotape analogue study. An equal number of\ud vignettes of abused and non-abused children performing\ud "positive" and "negative" behaviors were shown to a total\ud of 42 people who worked professionally in the area of child\ud abuse. The workers were found to exhibit a significant tendency\ud to rate the children as abused. In addition, the\ud abused children were significantly more likely to be\ud correctly identified. There were significant differences\ud in workers' ratings of abused and non-abused children,\ud contingent upon whether they were performing positive or\ud negative behavior. Both positive and negative behavior of\ud the abused children were associated with more extreme\ud reactions. The negative behavior of the abused children\ud elicited more anger and sympathy, and lower ratings on love\ud and goodness. Surprisingly, the positive behavior of the\ud abused children elicited less anger and sympathy, and\ud higher ratings on love and goodness.\ud Consistent with the social learning/interactional view\ud of abuse, the child may very well contribute to his/her own\ud abuse. However, having been abused appears to be associated\ud with exemplary behavior, as well as extremely\ud irritating negative behavior