NCJ Number
142294
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: (March-April 1993) Pages: 249-260
Date Published
1993
Length
12 pages
Annotation
A sample of 897 undergraduate students completed a questionnaire assessing their tendency to blame victims of child physical abuse based on several factors: the child's provocativeness, gender of the subject, gender of the abuser, and gender of the child victim.
Abstract
The results supported the hypothesis that provocative children would elicit higher levels of blame for their own abuse. Previous research has shown that having a child perceived as being difficult to handle is the best predictor of harsh parental treatment. These results demonstrated that provocative children are more likely to receive abusive parenting and more likely to be blamed for parental behaviors. The results also supported the hypothesis that male subjects would attribute greater victim blame to the child than would female subjects. The assertion that participants would ascribe greater levels of child blame when the parent was a father, rather than a mother, was also confirmed. Finally, the findings were consistent with earlier research that showed the participants indicating higher levels of child blame to boy victims than to girls. 3 tables and 42 references