Citation

Gara MA, Rosenberg S, Herzog EP. Child Abuse Negl. 1996; 20(9): 797-807.

Affiliation

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), Community Mental Health Center at Piscataway, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, NJ 08855-1392, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8886464

Abstract

Free-response memories and current descriptions of self, parents, babies, and significant others generated by 55 mothers who were physically abused as children were compared with memories and descriptions by 46 mothers who were not physically abused. The two groups of mothers were matched for age of baby, race, and socioeconomic status. It was found that clusters of negative attributes pervaded the memories and perceptions that abused mothers had of others, particularly parents. Moreover, the degree of negative elaboration (i.e., the number of negative clusters attributed to others) discriminated the abused and control groups almost perfectly. It was also found for both groups that the more elaborated the positive view of self and others, the more secure the attachment of infant to mother. In addition, patterns of identification and description were dramatically different between the two groups: Unlike the comparison mothers, abused mothers tended to disidentify with their own mothers and to be inconsistent in their characterization of them.

Language: en