Parental Sociopathy as a Predictor of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Research on childhood sexual abuse has often examined, in isolation of one another, such highly correlated risk factors as parental substance abuse, domestic violence, and pathological family functioning. Investigating comorbid antecedents separately does not allow accurate specification of the predictors of abuse. Moreover, sexual trauma research has tended to neglect parental sociopathy as a risk factor. Given the limitations of past research, the present study examined the relationships among parental sociopathy, parental substance use, marital violence, poor family functioning, and childhood sexual abuse. We administered a battery of questionnaires to a nonclinical sample of 130 college women and replicated previous findings by showing that parental substance use predicted sexual abuse when examined in isolation. However, when parental sociopathy and the other risk factors were included in a regression model, parental sociopathy was the only significant predictor. Mother's and father's sociopathy predicted sexual abuse independently and when combined.     

A Survey: Children’s Rights Post Termination of Parental Rights and Pre-Adoption

This survey of the statutory provisions and case law of all 50 states and the District of Columbia includes the rights of children to parental support, inheritance, and familial association remaining upon termination of parental rights. A majority of states terminate all the child’s rights at the time parental rights are severed. However, a number of states by explicit statutes or statutory construction have determined that a child’s rights to parental support survives termination of parental rights. This survey examines the prevailing law in each state and suggests statutory reforms to protect the legal status and rights of children.     

PARENTAL MANAGEMENT: MEDIATOR OF THE EFFECT OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ON EARLY DELINQUENCY *

This study used structural equation modeling with longitudinal data from the Oregon Youth Study to test the hypothesis that the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on delinquency in early adolescence would be mediated entirely by parental management skills. SES was measured by parental education and occupation when the son was in the fourth grade, parental management skills during the sixth grade, and delinquency during the seventh grade. The hypothesis was supported: The direct effect of SES on delinquency was not significant after controlling for parental management, which was modeled as a second-order factor consisting of parental monitoring and discipline. Implications are discussed for theories of delinquency and for delinquency prevention and treatment.     

Unsupervised Routine Activities as a Mediator of the Parental Knowledge–Delinquency Relationship

The principal aim of this study was to examine the relationship between parents (parental knowledge) and peers (unsupervised routine activities) in predicting delinquency. Enlisting all 1,170 male members of the Pathways to Desistance study and a causal mediation model, baseline and Wave 1 measures of parental knowledge and unsupervised routine activities were cross-lagged and then regressed onto Wave 2 delinquency. Consistent with the view that parenting precedes peer influence when it comes to predicting delinquency, the target pathway (baseline parental knowledge → Wave 1 unsupervised routine activities → Wave 2 delinquency) achieved significance and the comparison pathway (baseline unsupervised routine activities → Wave 1 parental knowledge → Wave 2 delinquency) did not. These results suggest that weak parental knowledge may increase delinquency by failing to divert the child from involvement in unsupervised routine activities with peers.     

Withdrawal of Parental Responsibility: Lost Authority and a Lost Opportunity

This comment examines Re D (Withdrawal of Parental Responsibility), the first reported Court of Appeal decision on withdrawal of parental responsibility pursuant to section 4(2A) of the Children Act 1989. It demonstrates that the Court overlooked earlier Court of Appeal authority, resulting in tension in the Court's guidance. The comment criticises the Court of Appeal's characterisation of parental responsibility as entirely child‐centred and its uncritical acceptance that the child's welfare is the paramount consideration in applications for withdrawal of parental responsibility. It argues that such an approach may not adequately respect the parent's interests in retaining parental responsibility, especially in the context of an order which is more draconian in effect than a care order. The impact upon applications for removal of parental responsibility of the new presumption of parental involvement, which was implemented shortly after the decision in Re D, is also considered.     

Parental Incarceration during Childhood, Family Context, and Youth Problem Behavior across Adolescence

Over the past several decades, the number of youth with parents in prison in the U.S. has increased substantially. Findings thus far indicate a vulnerable group of children. Using prospective longitudinal data gathered as part of the population-based Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT) randomized controlled trial, adolescents who had an incarcerated parent during childhood are compared to those who did not across four key domains: family social advantage, parent health, the parenting strategies of families, and youth externalizing behavior and serious delinquency. Past parental incarceration was associated with lower family income, parental education, parental socioeconomic status, and parental health, and with higher levels of parental depression, inappropriate and inconsistent discipline, youth problem behaviors and serious delinquency. The effect sizes for significant associations were small to moderate.     

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SUPERVISED ACCESS AND CUSTODY EXCHANGE SERVICES

The detrimental effect of parental conflict in protracted child custody and visitation disputes is well established in the literature. However, little is known about the impact of parental conflict on children when visitation takes place in a protected setting. Part of a larger study that examined the broader issues related to parental and child involvement in a supervised access and custody exchange service, this article specifically explores the influence of parental participation on child well-being. This exploratory effort reveals that children's level of adjustment remained stable over 6 months of participation while visitation returned to court-ordered levels and interparental contact was precluded by staff intervention.     

Experiences with Parental Aggression During Childhood and Self-Concept in Adulthood: The Importance of Subjective Perceptions

That individuals' realities are subjectively constructed is a basic, fundamental concept in psychology. However, past research examining child maltreatment in relation to psychological functioning has only investigated the frequency with which parental aggression occurs. Here, adults' perceptions of the abusiveness of their parents' aggressive behaviors during childhood were investigated as a predictor of current self-concept. Participants (N = 119) completed questionnaires assessing the extent to which they experienced parental aggression during childhood, their subjective perceptions of their parents' behaviors, and their current self-concept. Results indicated that how participants perceived their parents' aggressive behaviors was a more important predictor of self-concept than was the frequency with which those aggressive parental behaviors occurred. How individuals characterize their experiences with parental aggression should be taken into account when examining the psychological effects of aggressive parental behaviors.     

The ‘beyond parental control’ label in Nigeria

Recent reports in Nigeria indicate a geometric rise in incarcerated adolescents, with an overwhelming majority of this increase being attributed to adolescents being declared ‘beyond parental control’. There is a nagging suspicion that the Nigerian juvenile justice system has over criminalised adolescents by declaring them ‘beyond control’ when behavioural problems have actually resulted from child abuse/neglect and family disruption. A study was undertaken in a juvenile justice institution in Nigeria to assess the adequacy of pre-incarceration parental care among adolescents that had been declared as ‘beyond parental control’. The study included 75 adolescent boys that had been declared as ‘beyond parental control’ and a comparison group of 144 matched school going boys. It examined self-reports received from the adolescent boys regarding their pre-incarceration family life and social circumstances, as well as the behavioural problems they had experienced. The findings indicate that adolescent boys who were declared as ‘beyond parental control’ had a significantly higher lifetime history of behavioural problems than the comparison group, and they also had significantly higher indicators of pre-incarceration child abuse/neglect and problems with stability and consistency of primary support. These findings pose questions regarding the presumption of adequate parental care prior to the declaration of ‘beyond parental control’. It also raises questions about child rights protection and juvenile justice reform in Nigeria.     

Childhood Abusive and Supportive Experiences, Inter-Parental Violence, and Parental Alcohol Use: Prediction of Young Adult Depressive Symptoms and Aggression

Issues in both the children of alcoholics and child abuse literatures were addressed in an attempt to disentangle the effects on young adults of growing up in alcoholic homes versus abusive homes. Using multiple regression, retrospective reports of parental abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual) and parental support (love/support, independence, and fairness), witnessing violence between parents, and parental alcohol use were used as predictor variables for outcomes noted by both literatures. When the effects of all other predictors were statistically controlled, parental alcohol use was not significantly related to depressive symptoms or aggression. Different abusive and supportive behaviors, depending on sex of parent and sex of participant, were significant predictors of both depression and aggression. Results underscore the importance of including and controlling for inter-parental violence and for different types of child abuse (especially emotional abuse) and parental supportive behaviors in investigations of outcomes related to abusive and alcoholic families. Implications for treatment of individuals from these families are discussed.     

Legal Capacity at a Crossroad: Mental Disability and Family Law

In this introductory essay to the Special Issue, I argue that both family law and disability rights law scholars should examine a key point of intersection across areas: legal capacity or the law's recognition of the rights and responsibilities of an individual. For example, parental termination proceedings center on parental fitness and functional capabilities. I contextualize the articles in the Special Issue by Leslie Francis and Robyn Powell on the role of reasonable accommodations for parents with disabilities in parental termination proceedings. In addition, I call upon legal scholars, family law courts, and practitioners to reimagine governing legal standards in family law according to principles of universal design to shift the baseline capabilities associated with parenting and parental fitness.     

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH THEFT,MARIJUANA USE,DEPRESSION, AND POOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE*

Explanations for the fact that crime tends to run in families have focused on the deprived social backgrounds of criminal parents, methods of child‐rearing, modeling processes, and genetic mechanisms. However, parental involvement in the criminal justice system itself also might contribute to the intergenerational transmission of crime and have other adverse effects on children's well‐being. We investigated the development of youth problem behavior in relation to parental arrest, conviction, and incarceration in the youngest and oldest samples of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a longitudinal survey of 1,009 inner‐city boys. Parental arrest and conviction without incarceration did not predict the development of youth problem behavior. Parental incarceration was not associated with increases in marijuana use, depression, or poor academic performance. However, boys experiencing parental incarceration showed greater increases in theft compared with a control group matched on propensity scores. The association between parental incarceration and youth theft was stronger for White youth than for Black youth. Parenting and peer relations after parental incarceration explained about half of its effects on youth theft. Because the effects of parental incarceration were specific to youth theft, labeling and stigma processes might be particularly important for understanding the consequences of parental incarceration for children.     

Violent backgrounds of economically disadvantaged youth: Risk factors for perpetrating violence?

Adolescent Job Corps residents (n=474) reported the violence they had experienced, witnessed, and perpetrated with regards to parents, siblings, friends, and strangers. Results indicated that there was a high prevalence of all types of violence in this atrisk adolescent sample. Moreover, the majority of adolescents who reported violent experiences indicated threat or use of a weapon was involved. Gender differences were obtained such that boys reported perpetrating more aggression against friends and strangers than girls. Girls reported witnessing more parental aggression than boys. No gender differences in parental victimization rates were obtained. Contrary to prediction, parental victimization did not significantly predict perpetration towards siblings, friends, or strangers for either gender. However, parental victimization did predict increased violence towards parents. Surprisingly, for females especially, witnessing parental violence reduced the likelihood of violence towards parents. These findings support the need to include conflict resolution skills as a component of Job Corps training.     

Isolating Adult Psychological Correlates of Witnessing Parental Violence: Findings from a Predominantly Latina Sample

This study examined the relationship between childhood exposure to parental violence and adult psychological functioning in a sample of predominantly Mexican American participants. Questionnaires assessing childhood maltreatment, family environment, and current psychological symptomatology were completed by 142 female undergraduates. Findings revealed that witnessing parental violence in childhood was associated with depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, and trauma symptoms in adulthood, even after controlling for child physical and sexual abuse. However, in subsequent analyses, also controlling for levels of nonphysical family conflict, previous associations between exposure to parental violence and adult symptomatology were reduced, such that trauma-related symptoms remained the sole outcome still predicted by a history of witnessing parental violence. Implications of these findings, issues related to the use of statistical control procedures in abuse effects research, and directions for future investigation are discussed.     

Factors Associated with Co-occurrence of Spousal and Parental Violence: Quebec Population Study

Although the occurrence of both spousal and parental violence within the same family has been documented, there are scarcely any data on this phenomenon for Quebec and Canada. In analyzing the data from the 2004 Quebec survey on family violence in the lives of children, conducted with a population sample of 3,148 mothers, this study pursued two goals: to determine what differences exist between three groups in which family violence occurs (spousal violence, parental violence and co-occurrence of the two) and to better document the factors related to the different types of family violence by developing an explanatory model. Ecological analyses revealed major differences between these three groups in every aspect examined. Our findings support the hypothesis that families in which spousal and parental violence co-occur are not qualitatively different from those families in which only spousal or only parental violence occurs, but that they differ in the severity of the cases reported.     

The legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ in the Province of Quebec

ABSTRACT

This article examines the legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ discourse in the Province of Quebec, Canada. It draws upon an analysis of 31 documents (legislation, research reports and articles, training documents, professional documents and media articles) and interviews with 13 key informants, who were selected based on their knowledge of ‘parental alienation’ in research, policies or practices. The research findings reveal that the legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ discourse is a more recent process than in other provinces and countries, but that it has now permeated child custody as well as child protection proceedings. Academic researchers and media have been instrumental in this legitimization and institutionalization process, while the role played by changes to child protection policies is more ambiguous. The findings reveal researchers’ and experts’ tendency to distance themselves from Gardner’s controversial work on ‘parental alienation syndrome’ and to address the critiques by proposing new approaches and new concepts. However, the terms ‘parental alienation syndrome’, ‘parental alienation’ and ‘alienating behaviours’ are often used interchangeably, and assessment practices tend to rely on similar indicators.     

Preventing juvenile sexual offending through parental monitoring: a comparison study of youth’s experiences of supervision

ABSTRACT

The parental monitoring literature has long observed a link between parental monitoring and juvenile antisocial behaviour. This study extends this line of research to juveniles who commit sexual abuse. The present study investigates whether juvenile reports of parental monitoring differ between juvenile sexual offenders (n?=?338), juvenile delinquents (n?=?346), and non-incarcerated juvenile controls (n?=?256). Results indicate that both incarcerated groups reported significantly less parental knowledge compared to juvenile controls. Further, both juvenile sexual offenders and juvenile controls reported significantly more parental control compared to juvenile delinquents. With regard to parental solicitation, the results were mixed for sexual offenders. They reported high levels of solicitation for some items (e.g. what the youth was doing, who they were with), and lower levels for other items (e.g. where the youth was, whether an adult would be present). When repeating these analyses with the exclusion of non-parent caregivers, a similar pattern of results emerged; however, item-level analyses revealed that parents of juvenile delinquents reported certain types of solicitation and control behaviours more frequently (e.g. asked where the youth was going, made sure the rules were followed) compared to findings from the main sample. Potential explanations for these findings as well as practical implications for prevention are discussed.     

Frequency of Parental Violence Against Children in Chinese Families: Impact of Age and Gender

The present study examines the impact of child and parent gender on parental violence across age span of children and their parents in Hong Kong Chinese families. A randomly selected community sample of 1,019 households was surveyed. Results indicate that, in general, boys experience more frequent parental violence than girls and mothers engage in more violent behaviors against their children than fathers. Parental violence shows a curvilinear pattern with age of children, peaking at age 8 for boys and age 3 for girls. There is a pattern of declining frequency of parental violence as parental age increases across child gender. Fathers exhibit an inverted U pattern of violent behavior against their children, with a peak around age 31–40, while mothers have a steadily declining trend until age 46. Separate parental violence indices are constructed for boys and girls.     

Scale of negative family interactions: a measure of parental and sibling aggression

This article examines a measure of received emotional, physical, and sexual aggression within the family: the Scale of Negative Family Interactions (SNFI). Unlike traditional familial violence scales that measure parental aggression alone, the SNFI simultaneously measures sibling violence for a more comprehensive examination of familial aggression. Although a variety of scales may be used in researching parental abuse, the SNFI is uniquely intended for (a) examining sibling violence while controlling for parental aggression, (b) examining parental abuse while controlling for sibling violence, and (c) comprehensively examining family violence to include aggression from both parents and siblings. Test-retest and internal consistency reliability were demonstrated, and evidence for validity is presented. In addition to offering a measure of sibling and parental aggression, the SNFI has the advantages of including everyone in the role of parent or sibling and of measuring a wide variety of emotional, physical, and sexual aggression within the family.     

Children’s Aggression, Parenting Styles, and Distress for Hong Kong Parents

This study examined the connection between parental perceptions about their children’s reactive and proactive aggression, parenting styles, parent–child communication, and parental distress. A total of 1,485 Hong Kong parents and guardians with children 8 to 17 years old completed the Reactive and Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, Adjective Checklist, and Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire. When reactive and proactive aggression responses were used to predict parental distress, a significant regression model was obtained with both predictors making a contribution. A significant model also was discovered when parenting styles and parent–child communication were used to predict parental distress. Authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting contributed significantly to this model. One final regression was performed with the significant predictors from the two previous equations. This model was significant, with reactive and proactive aggression, and authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles making significant contributions. Practice and research implications are briefly discussed.