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Abstract
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In recent decades it has become increasingly apparent that violence affects a significant proportion of families in the United States (Bureau of Justice Statistics 1983). Violence, in fact, is becoming a defining characteristic of American society. A recent comparison of the rates of homicide among 21 developed nations indicates that the United States has the highest homicide rate in the world, and its rate is more than four times higher than the next highest rate (Fingerhut and Kleinman 1990). What is even more alarming is the high incidence of violent death and injury for children and adolescents in the United States. Acts of violence are the cause of death for over 2000 children between the ages of 0 and 19 years each year, and more than 1.5 million children and adolescents are abused by their adult caretakers each year (Christoffel 1990).
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this article by Cicchetti and Lynch was to merge ecological and transactional analysis into one model in order to build a framework to facilitate understanding the ways in which community violence and child maltreatment adversely influence children's development.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors conducted a literature review analyzing current information on community violence and child maltreatment and its effects on children's development using the ecological/transactional model they had developed as a framework. The model contained four levels: the macrosystem; the exosystem; the microsystem; and ontogenic development. The macrosystem was defined as cultural values and beliefs. The exosystem was delineated as formal and informal structures that influenced the child's immediate environment including characteristics of communities that encourage child maltreatment. The microsystem was operationally defined as variables within the family that contribute to child maltreatment. Factors within individuals that are related to perpetrating child maltreatment were put in the ontogenic development category. This model emphasized the transactions between risk factors and protective factors that occur within each ecological level. These factors were either relatively long-term or short-term conditions or characteristics. Long-term characteristics examined in the model were enduring vulnerability factors and enduring protective factors. Short-term characteristics named in the model were transient challengers and transient buffers.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors found in the literature information conveying a societal acceptance of high levels of violent acts in the United States. This societal toleration of violence was viewed by the authors as an enduring vulnerability factor present in the macrosystem which influenced the exosystem, community violence and the microsystem, family violence. The exosystem category included the neighborhood, informal social networks and formal support groups, the availability of services, the availability of employment, and the pervasive socioeconomic status , interconnections among settings such as school, peer group, church, and work place. The review of literature showed that there has been little methodological research on the effects of communities permeated with violence and outcomes in children. Work is currently being done to define the links between contact with community violence and outcomes in children. Children were between two and four times more likely to have witnessed violence than to have been victims of violence according to a study of mothers and their children in a Washington D.C. neighborhood. Exposure to violence has been found to create distress symptoms in children. An exosystem which is pervasively violent had implications for the microsystem, family violence, and ontogenic development. The microsystem's relationship to children's development was examined in the literature support was found for the belief that maltreating parents are more likely than non-maltreating parents to have had a history of abuse. This set the stage for the maltreatment of the child in the family. Other studies have shown that abusive parents were less psychologically complex and personally integrated than non-abusive parents. Conflict was more characteristic of maltreating families than non-maltreating families. Spousal abuse was reported to be related the occurrence of child maltreatment. Maltreating parents were found to be less satisfied with their children, perceive child rearing as less enjoyable and more difficult, promote an isolated lifestyle for their children and themselves, and encourage the autonomy of their children less. Maltreating parents were found to often reverse roles with their children. Their children acted as care-giver to the parent(s). Maltreating parents, in general, weren't helpful with the development of successful functioning in their children. These negative potentiating factors according to the premises of the ecological/transactional model may be internalized by maltreated children. Ontogenic development analysis looked at the major developmental tasks faced by children. The formation of a stable attachment with primary caregiver was examined. The literature showed that maltreated children were more likely to form insecure attachments with their primary caregivers than non-maltreated children.
The emotional regulation of maltreated children was found to be deficient. The development of an autonomous self was also hampered in maltreated children.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors recommended that each level of the model should be further specified and operationalized. The authors' felt that a more precise understanding of the operation of risk factors within the model is needed. The authors' stated that epidemiological approaches to the study of community violence and child maltreatment must be integrated with direct observational, interview and experimental approaches.
(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)
N1 - Call Number: F-552, AB-552
KW - Child Witness
KW - Witnessing Community Violence
KW - Psychological Victimization Effects
KW - Witnessing Violence Effects
KW - Exposure to Violence
KW - Community Violence Effects
KW - Child Development
KW - Youth Development
KW - Child Abuse Effects
KW - Child Abuse Victim
KW - Child Physical Abuse Effects
KW - Child Physical Abuse Victim
KW - Domestic Violence Effects
KW - Domestic Violence Victim
KW - Child Victim
KW - Developmental Pathway
KW - Model
Language: en |