Citation

Cantos AL, Neale JM, O'Leary KD, Gaines RW. Child Abuse Negl. 1997; 21(7): 631-636.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9238546

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Mothers who had physically abused their children were assessed to determine whether these mothers had a general coping skills deficit. METHOD: Abusing mothers (n = 17) were compared to nonabusing mothers of conduct problem children (n = 16). Coping was measured by several methods, each designed to address the insufficiencies of the others. RESULTS: In comparison to the nonabusing mothers, independent ratings indicated that abusing mothers exhibited a pattern of coping characterized by greater use of emotion-focused coping strategies and less use of effective problem-focused strategies. Finally, using self report ratings of coping, abusing mothers perceived their coping to be more ineffective than the nonabusing mothers. CONCLUSIONS: The possibility that the observed coping skills deficit may be indicative of a deficit in emotional responding to stress was discussed and suggestions were given for therapeutic interventions with child abusing mothers.

Language: en