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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by Pelcovitz et al. was to examine the structure and dynamics of families in which physical abuse of an adolescent had occurred.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors employed a quasi-experimental cross-sectional design, with a non-probability sample of 22 families in which 33 adolescents had been reported as abused. The families had been referred to a treatment program in a hospital in New York City after being reported to Child Protective Services. Child abuse was defined as a situation resulting when a person who was legally responsible for a child under 18 years of age had inflicted or had allowed to be inflicted intentional physical injury, or who had created or allowed a risk of death or substantial injury. Families were divided into two groups, based upon reports from Child Protective Services - childhood onset (before the age of 12) and adolescent onset (between 12 and 18). Assessment of family members included psychosocial and psychiatric evaluations of the victim of abuse, and psychiatric evaluation of each of the parents. These evaluations included assessment of personality, psychopathology and child-rearing patterns. The adolescent group was subsequently further divided into authoritarian families and overindulgent family structures, following unanimous decisions on the part of a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist and an independent family therapy consultant. The researchers examined a number of different variables: 1) family boundaries, whether enmeshed and blurred, disengaged and rigid, or normal and clear; 2) presence of spousal physical violence; 3) denial of marital conflict; 4) quality of parents' relationships with their families of origin, and if they themselves were abused as children; and 5) the ending of abuse after treatment began, as measured by the absence of any further reports from Child Protective Services. Analysis involved examination of frequencies.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The researchers found that 14 of the 33 adolescents fell into the childhood onset group. Of the 16 parents in this group, 12 had reported being abused as children (75%). This compared to 3 of the 14 (21.4%) in the authoritarian group, and 4 of the 14 (28.6%) in the overindulgent group. All of the wives in the childhood onset group reported being victims of spouse abuse, whilst only 28.6% of the overindulgent families and none of the authoritarian families reported spousal violence. All of the authoritarian families denied experiencing marital conflict, compared with only 28.6% of the overindulgent families and 12.5% of the childhood onset families. For the authoritarian families, all abuse stopped once treatment had begun. This compared to only 37.5% of childhood onset families ceasing abuse, and 85.7% of overindulgent families no longer reporting physical violence. The authors concluded that adolescent abuse was a symptom of a dysfunctional family that had failed to permit the adolescent to separate from his or her family. They believed that once abuse was recognized, efforts aimed at stopping adolescent abuse were more successful than those directed at the prevention of child abuse.
EVALUATION:
The authors present an interesting account of their work with abusive families. However, results must be interpreted with caution. The small and clinical nature of the sample precludes much generalization, and the use solely of frequencies provides little more than a brief description of the phenomenon in question. No discussion was made of any differences between the families with regard to family boundaries, and few implications were addressed for policy, prevention or intervention planning. The definition of abuse employed in the study does not differentiate between physical and psychological abuse, which might affected the results found. Overall, a more detailed and sophisticated study would have been more helpful, and would have added more to the field of family abuse. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Early Adolescence
KW - Late Adolescence
KW - New York
KW - Domestic Violence Victim
KW - Juvenile Victim
KW - Family Environment
KW - Family Structure
KW - Child Abuse Causes
KW - Child Abuse Victim
KW - Child Abuse Treatment
KW - Child Physical Abuse Causes
KW - Child Physical Abuse Victim
KW - Child Physical Abuse Treatment
KW - Family Relations
KW - Domestic Violence Causes
KW - Domestic Violence Treatment
KW - Parent Child Relations
KW - Age of Onset
Language: en |