Citation

Bluestone C. Child Abuse Rev. 2005; 14(4): 240-258.

Affiliation

Queensborough Community College, City University of New York, Department of Social Sciences, 222-05 56th Avenue, Bayside, New York 11364-1497 USA (cbluestone@qcc.cuny.edu)

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Many nations, including the US, Australia, and Canada, have developed legislation at the local or national level to require selected professionals to report all cases of suspected child abuse as part of the system to prevent serious injuries or fatalities. In many states of the US, including New York, child service professionals must take a training course to ensure that they are aware of their legal obligations as mandated reporters. Completion of the course is often a prerequisite to obtain certification to practise in one's field. Despite this rudimentary training, many cases of suspected abuse are not reported. Moreover, many child abuse professionals experience confusion and emotional distress in dealing with the reporting process (Buckley, 2000). While training that considers potential influences on reporting can be effective in addressing some of these issues (Hawkins et al., 2001), there are few studies of the effectiveness of current training curricula (Alvarez et al., 2004). This preliminary investigation was conducted with 80 nursing and education students, an identified group of prospective mandated reporters. We examined the potential influence of childhood disciplinary experiences and their appraisal as these factors may relate to views of discipline and abuse. The findings revealed that history of childhood experiences with discipline, in conjunction with appraisals of rejection, accounted for a small, but significant amount of the variance in students' current beliefs about appropriate discipline. The findings are considered in the context of findings about training for professionals who are in a position to report suspected child abuse. When considered with that literature, these findings suggest that disciplinary history should be considered in the context of evaluations of the effectiveness of training curricula for mandated reporters.

Language: en