Risk of Abusive Violence Among Children With Nongenetic Caretakers

• NCJ Number: 129459
• Journal: Family Relations Volume: 40 Dated: (January 1991) Pages: 78-83
• Author(s): R J Gelles; J W Harrop
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 6 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH40027
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data gathered from the Second National Family Violence Survey, a national probability sample of 6,002 households, was used to examine whether nongenetic caretakers are more likely than genetic caretakers to use violence and abuse towards their children.

Abstract

The results failed to confirm the hypothesis that nongenetic parents are more violent and abusive towards children than are genetic parents. The rate of overall violence was significantly lower for stepchildren than the other children in the study. The rates of severe violence and very severe violence experienced by stepchildren in the entire sample were slightly lower than those experienced by genetic offspring, but the differences were not statistically significant. Stepchildren of male respondents experienced less overall violence than genetic, foster, or adopted children; this difference did not occur for stepmothers. There was no statistically significant difference in the rates of severe violence experienced by genetic and nongenetic children. The study findings are discussed in terms of their implications both for diagnosing cases of child abuse and the biosocial theory of child maltreatment. 1 table and 49 references (Author abstract modified)