Re: screening questions for abuse vs. harsh discipline

[GaryD <gary.dumbrill@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:57 PM 4/20/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello,
>A colleague is starting to analyze data from a screening questionnaire
>and asked me to post this query.  
>1) Have you spanked your child more
>than once in the previous month?
>2) Have you ever felt like you have
>lost control while spanking your child?
>3) Have you ever left a mark from
>spanking your child?
>If a parent endorses any 2 of these
>3 items, she is trying to use this as
>an indication of either: "corporal
>punishment"; or "harsh discipline"; or 
>"potential abuse".

Depending on what is meant by "lost control" or "mark," one of the above
items alone could define abuse.

You may find this article helpful:

Bowdry, C. (1990). Toward a treatment-relevant typology of child abuse
families. Child Welfare, LXXIX(4), 333-340.

You may wish to compare the catigories you are using "corporal punishment;
harsh discipline and potential abuse" with Bowdry's catigories.  The
article goes some way to defining a line between abuse and discipline.

Gary Dumbrill
University of Toronto