Citation

Silber S, Hermann E, Henderson M, Lehman A. J. Fam. Violence 1993; 8(1): 27-38.

Affiliation

Children''s Hospital, Family Development, 300 Longwood Avenue, 02115 Boston, Massachusetts; University of Michigan, 48109 Ann Arbor, Michigan; University of South Florida, 33620 Tampa, Florida; Yale University, 06520 New Haven, Connecticut; Schneider Chil

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00986991

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Behaviors of influence and response during a conflict negotiation task were examined in eight physically child abusing, substance abusing families in which the father was the primary abuser and eight demographically matched nonabusing families. Abusing fathers displayed more coercive patterns of influencing behavior and more negative patterns of response to other family members, including both mothers and children. Fewer differences were observed between mothers in the abusing and nonabusing families or in the children''s behavior; however, mothers in the abusing families criticized their husbands more and abused children exhibited less agreement and more criticism toward their fathers. In support of Patterson''s theory, abusing families exhibited relatively more reciprocated sequences of criticism and relatively fewer reciprocated sequences of agreement as compared to nonabusing families. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding interaction in child abusing families.