青少年弱势群体受精神虐待现象探析

青少年权益的维护与保障正在引起社会关注的今天,青少年弱势群体所受到的精神虐待现象不可忽视。究其原因,施虐者的心理异常无疑是导致其对青少年弱势群体进行精神虐待的重要原因。因此,我们必须从社会、家庭、学校等多方面入手,采取高层次、多环节的综合措施,预防、控制精神虐待现象的滋生蔓延,确保青少年健康成长。     

Best Interest of the Child and Parental Alienation: A Survey of State Statutes

State statutes regarding the best interests of the child (BIC) in deciding disputed custody were reviewed and independently coded with respect to three issues (i) the child's preference and any limits (ii) parental alienation and (iii) psychological maltreatment. Results revealed that many states allowed for the child's preferences to be considered and none qualified that preference when undue influence has occurred; parental alienation as a term was not found in any state statutes but 70% of the states included at least one BIC factor relevant to its core construct of the parent supporting the child's relationship to the other parent; and many states included a history of domestic violence or child abuse but only three states explicitly mentioned psychological maltreatment. These findings highlight yet another way in which the BICS factors lack specificity in ways that could negatively impact children caught in their parents’ conflict.     

Breaking The Cycle Of Intergenerational Child Maltreatment: A Case For Active Efforts For Dependent Minor Parents And Their Children In State Custody

Dependent minor parents placed in foster care with their children often face significant hurdles. These parents are responsible to make caregiving decisions for their children, while they themselves fall under the caregiving responsibility of the state child welfare system. As such, dependent minor parents live in a “twilight zone” – they hold full parental rights, but limited rights as teenagers. For a number of reasons, the children of minor parents in foster care often come into state custody. When two generations are in foster care at the same time, states must balance the safety and best interests of the children with the rights of minor parents to care for their own children. Currently, the state child welfare system is only required to provide “reasonable efforts” to reunify parents with children when they have been removed from their care for abuse, neglect, or dependency. However, dependent minor parents in state custody often require more supportive services in order to successfully reunify with their children than in a typical child welfare case. This article places the circumstance just described in the context of dependent minor parents’ constitutionally protected rights, and advocates for a higher standard which would require states to provide “active efforts” to protect and preserve these young families.     

Gender,Child Maltreatment,and Delinquency

Prior research and theorizing have suggested that the relationship between child maltreatment and delinquent outcomes is gendered. However, research to date that has sought to test this hypothesis has been incomplete due to issues such as inconsistency in findings, focusing on a single type of maltreatment or delinquent outcome within a given study, and an overreliance on nonprobability samples. The authors sought to expand on this literature by examining the effects of several different types of child maltreatment on six different delinquent behaviors during middle adolescence in a nationally representative probability sample of American adolescents. Results suggest that in the case of physical abuse and alcohol use, child maltreatment shapes delinquent behaviors differently for girls and boys, with several other types of delinquent behaviors being similarly shaped by child maltreatment among girls and boys. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Gender Differences in the Connections Between Violence Experienced as a Child and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence in Young Adulthood

This paper uses longitudinal and nationally representative survey data to investigate the direct relationship between three forms of child maltreatment (neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse), and future intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration in the USA. We further examine the indirect effect that child maltreatment has on future IPV perpetration through the presence of youth violence perpetration, and the roles of socioeconomic factors on committing youth violence and IPV. Analyses indicate that gender differences exist for the developmental relationship between child maltreatment and young adult IPV perpetration, and the effects of socioeconomic factors on youth violence and IPV perpetration. For males, the direct effects of being neglected/physically abused as a child on IPV perpetration are not significant. However, the indirect effects of being neglected/physically abused on IPV perpetration through the presence of youth violence perpetration are significant. For females, the direct effects of being neglected/physically abused on IPV perpetration are significant. The indirect effect of being neglected on IPV perpetration is significant, while the indirect effect of childhood physical abuse is not significant. Childhood sexual abuse is not significantly directly associated with IPV perpetration for females; however, for males, it is the strongest (i.e., largest effect size) direct predictor of IPV perpetration. The indirect effects of childhood sexual abuse on IPV perpetration are not significant for both females and males.

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN THE IMPACT OF CHILD MALTREATMENT ON LATER DELINQUENCY AND DRUG USE*

Developmental psychopathology emphasizes the impact that early childhood maltreatment has on adolescent and early adult development. The life‐course perspective, however, emphasizes more proximal events—adolescent maltreatment, for example—as developmentally disruptive. Prior research suggests that childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for adolescent delinquency and drug use. However, the results appear to depend on a loose definition of childhood. This study utilizes a four‐category maltreatment classification—never, childhood‐only, adolescence‐only, and persistent—to re‐examine the maltreatment‐delinquency relationship. Using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, we find no relationship between childhood‐only maltreatment and adolescent delinquency or drug use; yet, we do find a consistent impact of adolescence‐only and persistent maltreatment on these outcomes.     

The impact of social class and parental maltreatment on the cognitive functioning of children

The purpose of the present investigation was to compare the cognitive functioning of maltreated children with two groups of nonmaltreated children: those matched for age and SES and those matched only on age. All of the children ranged in age from 6 to 16 years. The rationale for employing two comparison groups was to examine the role of maltreatment and SES separately to determine which factor, if any, is associated with children's cognitive functioning. Additionally, the present investigation sought to expand on previous work by employing both global measures of cognitive functioning (WISC-R) as well as measures designed to tap specific abilities (e.g., selective attention, short-term memory). Results indicate that maltreated children demonstrated deficits in cognitive functioning but that these are no more pervasive than those found in children from the same low socioeconomic backgrounds. These findings suggest that it may be deprived family circumstances common in maltreating families, not maltreatment per se, that is responsible for the cognitive deficits often noted in maltreated children.     

Profiles of Child Maltreatment Perpetrators and Risk for Fatal Assault: A Latent Class Analysis

This study examined characteristics and profiles of 196 child maltreatment perpetrators in Florida, including 126 who committed fatal assaults during 1999–2002. Results of logistic regression suggest that being a biologically unrelated caregiver is the strongest predictor of fatal child maltreatment. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to classify perpetrators, and three classes were identified: Biological Mothers with Health Problems, Male Perpetrators with Domestic Violence History, and Multiple-Problem Perpetrators. Results of LCA showed that compared to Biological Mothers with Health Problems, Multiple-Problem Perpetrators were seven times more likely and Male Perpetrators with Domestic Violence History were 12 times more likely to commit a fatal assault. Implications of the findings are discussed.

I’m From the Government and I’m Here to Help: How Can Public Health Perspectives Improve Outreach in Child Maltreatment Prevention Programs?

State and local governments are designing programs to prevent child maltreatment at an increasing rate. A relatively small portion of families offered these programs go on to engage in and complete services. Workers in a child maltreatment prevention program implemented across 21 sites in 1 state documented outreach efforts in logs maintained by program evaluators. Additionally, evaluators interviewed 23 outreach workers and supervisors who were developing and refining outreach strategies in this prevention program. Data from logs and responses to interviews speak to challenges in navigating prevention outreach with families to achieve engagement and buy-in, particularly when “cold-calling” about screened-out reports of child maltreatment. This paper presents a summary of barriers and facilitators of family engagement in outreach for prevention services, guidance from the public health literature on improving outreach strategies for at-risk populations, and suggested practice, policy, and research implications.     

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.