Citation

Evans AL. Child Abuse Negl. 1980; 4(3): 179-187.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The literature indicates that child abusing mothers are characterized by distinctive personality attributes. No studies appear pertaining to the attitudes of abusive mothers on child discipline. To further explore the personality characteristics and examine disciplinary attitudes manifested by abusive mothers (AMs), 20 AMs receiving Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) and 20 nonabusive, ADC mothers were administered the Family Concept Inventory, a measure of self-esteem (California Test of Personality), selected items from the MMPI reflecting depression/apathy and resentment/ agression, measures of reward- and punishment-oriented disciplinary stance, a series of seven Eriksonian developmental conflict scales, and selected stimuli from the TAT. Multivariate analysis of covariance revealed highly significant differences between the groups on the personality measures. Abusive mothers manifested lower self esteem, lower family concept, lower frustrated independence and greater depression and apathy; they scored lower on measures of the first six Eriksonian developmental stages. AMs scored higher on MMPI and TAT measures of aggression. No difference in attitudes towards discipline was found. Discriminant analysis using these data and actuarial data rendered 97.5% correct differentiation between the groups. Implications of the results are discussed.