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RE: Interactional nature of physical abuse
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<DIV>What you say makes a lot of sense, John. In our county childen's
system of mental health care, we find that negative attribution of a child's
intentions correlates highly with poor outcome, unless therapy is able to alter
that attribution to at least neutral. It seems to be a way of a parent
defensively protecting one's self from the despair of not being competent in
parenting a child with special challenges, and there appears to be a positive
feedback loop intensifying the problem, as you point out.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Freya Schultz</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Freya Schultz<BR>Staff Analyst<BR>Santa Barbara County Social
Services<BR>234 Camino del Remedio<BR>Santa Barbara, CA 93110<BR>(805)
681-4626<BR><<A
href="mailto:freya@co.santa-barbara.ca.us";>freya@co.santa-barbara.ca.us</A>><BR><BR>>>>
ezreader61@comcast.net 08/09/03 03:25PM >>><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Kym, I think that a
valid argument can be made that the parent’s perception of the child’s behavior
is as crucial to understanding the interactional nature of abuse as the child’s
behavior itself--if not more so. We know that most children demonstrate a
full spectrum of behaviors. Not all “good” children are good 100% of the
time. Not all “bad” children are bad 100% of the time. Human beings
have the tendency to see what they want to see given our particular needs and
desires. In other words, perception becomes reality. If a parent
chooses to focus only on his or her child’s negative behavior for whatever
reason that parent will inevitably see his or her child’s behavior as bad.
Each time the child behaves “badly” the parent’s perception of that child is
reinforced—less attention is paid to good or neutral behavior. In my
practice in working with abusive and potentially abusive parents, I have found
that a very effective intervention is to use strength-base, solution-focused
questions to help change the parent’s perception of his or her child. These
newfound perceptions create more options for the parent to interact differently
with his or her child that avoid abusive acts. In this case, effective
intervention does not depend necessarily on whether the child demonstrates
clinically significant behavioral or emotional problems, but does depend on the
flexibility of the parent’s perceptions of his or her child.
</SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Another thing to
consider is that children are interactive beings. Children learn very
quickly what behavior gains the attention of their parents or helps them to meet
their needs most effectively. Some of those behaviors are only present
within the context of that relationship. For example, I worked with a
young man who was a model student in school and had an exceptional relationship
with his teacher, but was impossible for his parents to control. His
parents had a very volatile marital relationship and it appeared to me that my
client was most out-of-control when his parents were most volatile. He
seemed to be most manageable by his parents when they were stable in their
relationship. I think it is very difficult to look at children’s behavior
outside of the context of his or her parent’s perceptions or outside the context
of the child’s relationship to his or her social network with any
meaningfulness.</SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=navy size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: navy">Mr. John M. Polstra, MSW,
LCSW</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">-----Original
Message-----<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B>
owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu
[mailto:owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu] <B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">On Behalf Of </SPAN></B>Kym Kilpatrick<BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Friday, August 08, 2003 1:20
AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> Child Maltreatment
Researchers<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> RE:
Interactional nature of physical abuse</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Colleagues,<BR>One of my issues with child
temperament research is that the papers I have read are heavily dependent on
parental report of temperament - the difficulty being of course that in the case
of maltreating parents there is considerable research to suggest that they hold
more negative views of their children's temperament than non-maltreating parents
- a major bias. I'd be interested to hear of any papers on child temperament
that did not rely on parental report.<BR>Cheers,<BR>Kym<BR>At 03:33
31/07/03 -0700, you wrote:<BR><BR></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Does anyone have any recent citations on
this?<BR><BR>Thanks very much<BR><BR>Lyn R. Greenberg Ph.D.<BR>12401 Wilshire
Blvd., Suite 303<BR>Los Angeles, CA 90025<BR><BR>(310) 399-3684<BR>(310)
399-7154 - fax<BR><BR>At 08:54 PM 7/30/2003 -0700, you
wrote:<BR><BR><BR></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=navy
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">There is
work that looks at the temperament of the child in relation to child abuse and
yes this does continue to hold water but that does not necessarily mean we have
caught up with ourselves in practice!!!<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial
color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Chris Risley-Curtiss,
PhD<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Associate
Professor<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">ASU School of Social
Work & Co-Director of the Child Welfare Training
Project<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">-----Original
Message-----<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> John Polstra
[<A href="mailto:ezreader61@comcast.net";
eudora="autourl">mailto:ezreader61@comcast.net</A>] <BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Tuesday, July 29, 2003 11:00
AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> Child Maltreatment
Researchers<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B>
Interactional nature of physical abuse<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR> <BR><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I recently
read a study completed by Kadushin and Martin (1981) where they completed an
extensive literature review describing the interactional nature of child
physical abuse. Specifically, they quoted a literature review by Parke and
Collmer entitled, Child Abuse: An Interdisciplinary Reviewin <I><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Review of Child Development Research</SPAN></I>
(1975) that says<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">& a
serious shortcoming in both the psychiatric and sociological models [of child
abuse] is their <I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">failure to give adequate
recognition to the interactive nature of child abuse. It is insufficient
to view abuse from a unidirectional viewpoint,</SPAN></I> whereby the main cause
is located in either the parent or in external circumstances. One
important feature of the social-situational approach is the recognition that
both partners, the child victim as well as the parent, need to be considered if
child abuse is to be fully understood.(Emphasis added by the authors).
<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Have several
requests that I would like to make:<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <BR></SPAN></FONT><BR>1.<FONT
size=1><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7.5pt">
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This research seems a bit
dated. Does anyone involved with the listserv have any suggestions for
more current research that supports the same
conclusion?<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR>2.<FONT size=1><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 7.5pt"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Is this a
view that continues to hold water in the research community? I ask because
I have suspect as much in my work with abusive families, but much of the
services that are designed to treat an abusive family are directed at the
parents primarily i.e., parenting classes, anger management programs, etc. with
some notable exceptions such as Healthy Families. I have always wondered
at the logic of removing a child form an abusive home and expecting parents to
attend skills training programs without the opportunity to use them with
effectiveness prior to the return of the child. I realize that this is an
overgeneralization of the process. But, I believe that there is still some
validity in this view of the child protection
process.<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I appreciate
any feedback that you have to offer.<BR></SPAN></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <BR></SPAN></FONT><BR>Mr. John
M. Polstra, MSW, LCSW<BR><BR> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT
face="BernhardMod BT" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'BernhardMod BT'">Lyn R. Greenberg
Ph.D.<BR>12401 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 303<BR>Los Angeles, CA
90025<BR><BR>310-399-3684<BR>fax 310-399-7154<BR><BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT
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<P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"></X-SIGSEP><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><X-SIGSEP>Regards,<BR><BR>Kym.<BR><BR>Kym
Kilpatrick,
Ph.D.,
e-mail:kkilpatr@metz.une.edu.au<BR>Psychology
Department,
phone: + 61 67 73-5197<BR>University of New
England, fax: + 61
67 73-3820<BR>Armidale NSW 2351, Australia</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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