NCJ Number
93806
Date Published
1983
Length
226 pages
Annotation
Written to assist mental health practitioners who are asked to treat child-abusive families, the text summarizes current knowledge about child-abusive behavior and outlines specific intervention techniques.
Abstract
Discussion focuses on the incidence and scope of child-abusive behavior and characteristics of abusive parents and abused children. A social-learning model of child abuse views child abuse as one extreme of a continuum of parenting, with the other extreme being parents who are never physically punitive toward their children. The model explores the social learning of abusive parenting, abusive parents' anger-control and coping-skill deficits, and implications for treatment. A description of the clinical assessment of child-abusive families covers a model of family assessment, parent psychopathology, child management deficits and child behavior control problems, assessment of anger control deficits, and integrating assessment data into a treatment intervention plan. Several chapters look at specific intervention techniques, such as training abusive parents to use nonviolent child discipline strategies, teaching parents to use positive reinforcement skills, and anger-control training. Intervention methods to reduce lifestyle risk factors of abusive parents are examined, and interdisciplinary team coordination in abuse cases is highlighted. Such team coordination may include judicial authorities, medical personnel, social welfare authorities, and community support groups. The final chapter describes a social learning-interaction model of prevention, which focuses on preventive modification of parent risk, child risk, and stress risk factors. Figures, tables, author and subject indexes, and about 235 references are supplied. The Eyerberg Child Behavior Inventory, a test of knowledge of behavior principles as applied to children, and a deep muscle relaxation training script are appended.