Physically violent mothers are a reason for young people's leaving home

In a qualitative study, 302 homeless young people (aged 12 to 20 years) were asked to discuss their reasons for leaving home. Some 103 youth cited physical violence by a parent or stepparent, and of these, 39 cited their mother's or stepmother's violence as the reason for leaving home. Females were more likely than males to report being the target of violence by their mother; however, the converse was true for stepmothers. Several discrete reasons for maternal violence were identified, including maternal personal characteristics and behaviors, issues associated with blended families, or young people's own behavior. In some cases, young people reported violence by both parents. Their attributions of maternal violence centered on a single dimension of the mother/stepmother or her relationship with a partner. They rarely discussed the contribution that they had made to the conflict or acknowledged the social context that may have been a catalyst for violence.     

Men who batter women: A study in power

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between a batterer's perception of his partner's power and the severely of violent tactics. Subjects for this study were 21 males, who had been arrested for domestic assault. Batterers whose educational level was higher than their partners used more severity violent tactics in assault. A correlation was found between reward power and severity of abuse, indicating that batterers perceive their partners as having a high ability to reward.     

Kinship Guardianship,Adoption, and Foster Care: Outcomes from a U.S. National Sample

Using data from a national longitudinal survey of children referred to child protective services (NSCAW II), this article compares behavioral, child/caregiver relationship, and school performance outcomes for children residing in kinship and nonkinship settings. Up to three waves of data were gathered for each child. The analysis sample comprises 4,202 children and 10,881 observations. Two sets of regressions were completed. One represents family living settings using child-mean centered predictors while the other does so with dummy-coded variables. An advantage of the child-mean centered predictors is that omitted variables that vary between children but that are constant within each child do not introduce bias. The regressions using dummy-coded variables evidenced, on balance, somewhat better outcomes for kinship settings than for nonkinship ones. Good outcomes in these regressions were found for kinship adoption. Results with the child-mean centered regressions were more equivocal, though perhaps still favored kinship settings. Limitations and policy recommendations conclude the article.