Citation

Hamilton A, Stiles WB, Melowsky F, Beal DG. J. Fam. Violence 1987; 2(3): 215-225.

Affiliation

Miami University, 45056 Oxford, Ohio; Children''s Psychiatric Center of the Jewish Hospital, 45211 Cincinnati, Ohio; Court Psychiatric Center, 45221 Cincinnati, Ohio; The University of Cincinnati School of Medicine, 45221 Cincinnati, Ohio

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00976540

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

An integrative, ecological model developed by Belsky (1980) implies that to understand child abuse researchers must examine factors at four levels: the individual, the family, the environment, and the culture. This study compared abusive and nonabusive parents at three of these four levels. At the individual level, abusers were found to have lower self-esteem than controls. Also, male abusers were likely to be relatively impulsive and hostile. At the level of the family, abusers described their children as more troublesome than control parents, but they did not perceive them as developmentally delayed. At the level of the environment, abusers identified more intense life stressors than nonabusers. Results of this investigation supported Belsky''s argument that child abuse involved multiple factors and levels.