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CAUSES OF CHILD ABUSE
1. Parent Factors
A parent's overall history as a child, plays a large part in how prepared he/she may be to be a parent. Individuals who have not had their own developmental; needs met may find it very difficult to meet the needs of their children.
Although many abusive parents experience behavioral and emotional difficulties, mental illness plays a very small overall role in child maltreatment. No consistent set of personality traits or cluster of personality traits has been identified as characterizing abusive parents. Characteristics identified as characterizing abusive parents. Characteristics identified in some maltreating parents are low self-esteem, low intelligence, ego deficiency, impulsiveness, hostility, isolation and loneliness, anxiety, depression and apathy, rigidity, fear of rejection, low frustration tolerance, narcissism, fearfulness, immaturity and dependency, neuroticism, drug or alcohol abuse and criminal behavior.
Alcohol and substance abuse continues to be a common problem or parents who maltreat their children.
A variety of problems resulting from a lack of skills and knowledge have also been suggested as characteristics of some maltreating parents. This includes:
- Lack of parenting skills (including overuse of physical punishment)
- Problems with coping and self-control
- Marital difficulties
- General lack of interpersonal skills
Parents' lack of knowledge of child development may result in appropriate expectations. Inappropriate attitudes can contribute to maltreating behavior, for example, acceptance of violence as a way to solve problems or belief that children are property.
Specific situations, such as untimely childbearing, physical illness and poor ability to emphatize with their children, can substantially increase the likelihood of child maltreatment, particularly when social stress and social isolation characterize the family. In some situations, single parents may be at higher risk of maltreating their children due to higher stress and low income.
2. Child Factors
The child's age and physical, mental emotional and social development can greatly increase or decrease the likelihood of maltreatment, depending on the interactions of these characteristics with parental factors enumerated above.
The child's behavior, for example, aversive crying and unresponsiveness, can increase the likelihood of maltreatment, particularly if a parent has a poor ability to empathize with the child and difficulty in controlling his/her emotions.
Some children may inadvertently contribute to their victimization by possessing characteristics that make it difficult for caregivers to relate with them. For example, infants who are constantly ill are less capable of eliciting nurturing responses from mothers who lack emotional support, are working through the grief process, or have few nurturing skills.
In general, children who are perceived as "different," such as disabled children, are at greater risk for abuse and neglect.
3. Family Factors
Specific life situations of some families can increase the likelihood of maltreatment, such as marital conflict, conflicting relationships with extended family, domestic violence, employment and financial stress and social isolation.
Families involved in child maltreatment tend to exhibit a pattern of day-to-day interaction characterized by a low level of social exchange, low responsiveness to positive behavior, and high responsiveness to negative behavior.
Research on attachment and bonding (the development of love between parent and child) has demonstrated the importance of early parent-child interactions within the first days of life, particularly with premature and ill newborns. Specifically related to child maltreatment, studies have found that less parent-infant contact during early hospitalization was more likely to lead abuse.
4. Environmental Factors
Environmental factors are often found in combination with child, parent and family factors. The incidence of child maltreatment is higher in some cultures, societies and communities than others. And what one culture defines as child abuse and neglect may be socially acceptable interaction in other culture. Economic pressure, values concerning the role of the child in the family, attitudes about the use of physical punishment, and the degree of social support for parents seem to account for these differences.
Stress caused by such factors, as poverty is associated with higher rates of reported child abuse, as evidenced at times of increased unemployment and recession.
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