Interactional nature of physical abuse

["Chaffin, Mark J. (HSC)" <Mark-Chaffin@xxxxxxxxx>]

John,

Work on the interactional nature of harsh parental discipline (sometimes aka physical abuse) and child behavior problems is clearly an ongoing and current area of research that has grown beyond the 1981 reference listed.  There are a couple of lines of work that are relevant here, I think.  The first relates to the framework which Bronfenbrenner and Ceci have called the bioecological model.  A fascinating study based on this model (which includes reciprocal pathways between child behavior problems and parental harshness, and more) can be found in: 

Riggins-Caspers, K.M., Cadoret, R.J., Knutson, J.F., and Langbehn, D.L.  (2003).  
Biology-environment interaction and evocative biology-environment correlation: Contributions of harsh discipline and parental psychopathology to problem adolescent behaviors.  Behavior Genetics, 33, 205-220.

This study is particularly interesting, because it demonstrates that family stress environments can moderate reciprocal pathways between parental harshness and child behavior problems, including those pathways related to children's genetic diastheses for behavior problems.

Another line of work derives from Patterson's coercive cycle model, which is inherently interactional.  A practical extention of this is the application of interventions such as Parent-Child Interaction Therapy to physical abuse (see the seminal paper by Urquiza and McNeill, 1991).  We recently completed an efficacy trial showing physical abuse recurrence with this intervention model was less than half the recurrence rate found with standard parenting group / anger management classes.

Mark Chaffin