NCJ Number
127104
Journal
Adolescence Volume: 25 Issue: 99 Dated: (Fall 1990) Pages: 517-528
Date Published
1990
Length
12 pages
Annotation
A study of 288 students, aged 17 to 21 who were enrolled in introductory-level college courses and had no experience being the primary caregiver for young children, were asked to read 69 vignettes depicting various examples of child maltreatment and rate the appropriateness of the parental behaviors.
Abstract
The data reveal that later adolescents as a group rated the parents' behaviors more severely than community members or professionals, believing that each parental behavior was more threatening to a child's healthy development. Community members rated 11 of the vignettes as being more inappropriate than did adolescents; these dealt with physical abuse, inadequate supervision, emotional maltreatment, parental sexual mores, and parental failure to provide. All 3 groups identified the same 10 parental behaviors as being most detrimental to the child's welfare. Similarly, the groups agreed on the behaviors considered least harmful. In general, all respondents were most critical of behaviors associated with physical and sexual abuse and most tolerant of behaviors associated with child neglect. The two predominant reasons for the strict ratings given by adolescents were their idealism about marriage and child-rearing and their lack of experience in caring for children. 2 tables and 13 references