@article{ref1,
title="Gender differences in empathy in parents at high- and low-risk of child physical abuse",
journal="Child abuse and neglect",
year="2004",
author="Perez-Albeniz, Alicia and de Paul, J.",
volume="28",
number="3",
pages="289-300",
abstract="OBJECTIVES: The present research was designed to study empathy in high-risk parents for child physical abuse. The main objective was to study if high-risk mothers and fathers, compared to low-risk mothers and fathers, presented more Personal distress, less Perspective-taking, less Empathic concern and a deficit in dispositional empathy toward their partner and children. METHOD: Based on their scores on the Abuse Scale of the CAP Inventory [J.S. Milner, The Child Abuse Potential Inventory: Manual, 2nd ed., Psytec Corporation, Webster, NC], 19 (9 fathers and 10 mothers) high- and 26 (12 fathers and 14 mothers) low-risk parents for child physical abuse were selected from a total sample of 331 parents of the Spanish general population. Both groups were statistically matched on sociodemographic variables. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) [Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology 10 (1980) 85] and the Parent/Partner Empathy Scale (PPES) [N.D. Feshbach, N. Caskey, A new scale for measuring parent empathy and partner empathy: factorial structure, correlates and clinical discrimination, 1985] were used to assess dispositional empathy. RESULTS: An interaction between risk status and gender for &quot;Personal distress&quot; and &quot;Perspective-taking&quot; was found. High-risk mothers for child physical abuse showed more &quot;Personal distress&quot; than low-risk mothers and low-risk fathers. High-risk fathers for child physical abuse showed less &quot;Perspective-taking&quot; than low-risk mothers and low-risk fathers. No difference between both groups was found for the IRI &quot;Empathic concern&quot; dimension. Moreover, high-risk, compared to low-risk, parents showed lower scores both on the &quot;Empathy toward the partner&quot; and on the &quot;Empathy toward the child&quot; dimensions of the PPES. No interaction between risk status and gender was found for the PPES dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of the present study supported the hypothesis that high-risk parents for child physical abuse show a deficit both in general empathy and in empathy toward their family members. Moreover, findings suggested the existence of a different pattern of deficits in empathy for high-risk fathers and high-risk mothers.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0145-2134",
doi="10.1016/j.chiabu.2003.11.017",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2003.11.017"
}