Carol Coohey

The Relationship between Familism and Child Maltreatment in Latino and Anglo Families

Familism, or familismo, refers to attitudes, behaviors, and family structures operating within an extended family system and is believed to be the most important factor influencing the lives of Latinos. Because of the complexity of the construct, this article begins by separating out and defining each dimension of familism, and then clarifies its relationship to the broader literature on social networks, social support, and child maltreatment. The analysis tests whether each dimension of familism is related to child maltreatment within and between 35 abusive Latino, 35 nonabusive Latino, 51 abusive Anglo, and 51 nonabusive Anglo families. Nonabusing Latinas appear to have a higher level of familism than the other three groups of mothers. However, when intraethnic comparisons were made, nonabusive Anglos, compared with abusive Anglos, had higher levels of familism on several variables. Hence, familism seems to characterize families—Latino and Anglo—who do not maltreat their children.

Toward an integrated framework for understanding child physical abuse.

OBJECTIVES The article constructed an integrated conceptual framework for understanding child physical abuse based on a content analysis of different theories. Three major determinants of physical abuse were identified: exposure to aggression, exposure to stressors, and access to resources. To test the framework, we included variables from all three major categories in the analyses. METHODOLOGY Data from a case-comparison study that included 81 physically abusive and 148 nonabusive mothers was used. Logistic regression determined the relative importance of the predictors. RESULTS The probability of child physical abuse varied in the expected direction with the number of emotional resources received (listening, help with decision-making, companionship), the number of stressors experienced, and the mothers exposure to physical abuse by their own mothers, current partners, and former partners. The estimation results showed that exposure to aggression in ones own childhood (abused by ones own mother) and exposure to domestic violence in ones adult life (abused by ones previous and current partners) were the most potent factors for predicting whether a mother physically abused her child. CONCLUSION The results suggest further research on the interdependencies between domestic violence and child physical abuse.

The Effect of Severe Child Sexual Abuse and Disclosure on Mental Health during Adulthood

This study examined the relationship among severe child sexual abuse, disclosure, and mental health symptoms during adulthood. The sample consisted of 172 adults who were sexually abused in childhood. The multivariate model showed that respondents in their 30s and 40s who were abused by more than one abuser, who were injured by their abusers, who were abused by a biological relative, who told someone about the abuse when it occurred, and who did not discuss their abuse in depth within one year of the abuse had a greater number of mental health symptoms. Abuse severity and disclosure history should be assessed by professionals to identify clients who are at higher risk of mental health symptoms and to focus therapy.

Defining and classifying supervisory neglect.

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a classification system for different types of supervision problems. Several prominent child maltreatment typologies were reviewed to determine the level of definitional agreement between systems; identify strengths and weaknesses within systems; and derive a consensual definition of child neglect, its major subcategories (physical, supervisory, and emotional), and 10 types of supervisory neglect. Six hundred two substantiated child abuse and neglect reports were used to test the system’s interrater reliability. The interrater reliability was excellent for most types of problems. Not watching a child closely enough (29.8% of the reports) made up the largest single type of supervisory neglect, followed by leaving a child alone without a caretaker (24.5%) and leaving a child with an unsuitable caretaker (19.7%). The article concludes with a discussion on how and in what context the system can be used.

Academic achievement despite child maltreatment: a longitudinal study.

PURPOSE Although researchers have concluded that child maltreatment has a negative effect on childrens learning and academic achievement, not all children are negatively affected by maltreatment, and some children seem to succeed academically despite being maltreated. Drawing on risk and resilience theory, we examined a broad range of potential risk, promotive, and protective factors within children and their environments along with characteristics of the maltreatment to account for variability in test scores. METHODS A national longitudinal probability sample of 702 maltreated school-aged children, ages 6-10, and their caregivers was used to predict reading and math scores among maltreated children over three years. RESULTS We found that chronic maltreatment, poorer daily living skills, and lower intelligence explained a substantial proportion of the variance in maltreated childrens math scores (39%), whereas type of maltreatment, poorer daily living skills and lower intelligence explained a substantial proportion of the variance in reading scores (54%) over time. Contrary to our prediction, having a behavior problem seemed to protect chronically maltreated children from poorer performance in math over time. CONCLUSIONS To increase academic achievement among maltreated children, it is imperative that we prevent chronic maltreatment and help children increase their competency on daily living skills.

The Effect of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Psychosexual Functioning During Adulthood

The study examined whether and how characteristics of childhood sexual abuse and disclosure influenced three dimensions of psychosexual functioning—emotional, behavioral and evaluative—during adulthood. The sample included 165 adults who were sexually abused as children. The General Estimating Equation was used to test the relationship among the predictors, moderators and five binary outcomes: fear of sex and guilt during sex (emotional dimension), problems with touch and problems with sexual arousal (behavioral), and sexual satisfaction (evaluative). Respondents who were older when they were first abused, injured, had more than one abuser, said the abuse was incest, and told someone about the abuse were more likely to experience problems in at least one area of psychosexual functioning. Older children who told were more likely than younger children who told to fear sex and have problems with touch during adulthood. Researchers and practitioners should consider examining multiple dimensions of psychosexual functioning and potential moderators, such as response to disclosure.

Battered mothers who physically abuse their children

The purpose of this study is to understand why some battered mothers physically abuse their children. Mothers who were battered and physically abused their children (the co-occurrence group) were compared with mothers who were neither battered nor physically abused, who were only battered, and who only abused (N = 184). The mothers in the co-occurrence group were more likely than the mothers who did not physically abuse their children to have been severely assaulted by their own mothers as children, have had poorer quality relationships with and receive less support from their mothers, have more stressors, and have known their partners for less time. These differences were not found between the mothers in the co-occurrence and abuse-only groups. In the multivariate analysis, having been assaulted by one’s own mother as a child—not being battered by one’s partner—was the most potent predictor for whether a mother physically abused her child.

Neglectful mothers, their mothers, and partners: The significance of mutual aid☆

Those who work to prevent the conditions that lead to child neglect need to know which supportive resources parents lack and why. The goals of this paper are to: (a) determine if mothers who neglect their children exchange (i.e., give and receive) fewer resources with two network members: their mothers and partners; and (b) identify a set of relationship characteristics that create barriers to the receipt of resources. Sixty-nine neglectful mothers were compared to a demographically comparable sample of 138 mothers. The results support the conclusion that neglectful mothers exchange fewer resources with both their partners and mothers, but the deficit varied depending on the network member and the type of support. Several additional relationship characteristics differentiated neglectful mothers from comparison mothers. Neglectful mothers were more likely to state their mothers had fewer positive attributes (e.g., was not warm and caring), their relationship was less positive, and they were less interested in receiving resources from their mothers. Partners of neglectful and comparison mothers did not differ on any of these characteristics. Instead, neglectful mothers and their partners knew each other for less time, were likely to be living with each other, and saw each other less frequently.

Adverse childhood experiences and trauma informed care: the future of health care

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are related to short- and long-term negative physical and mental health consequences among children and adults. Studies of the last three decades on ACEs and traumatic stress have emphasized their impact and the importance of preventing and addressing trauma across all service systems utilizing universal systemic approaches. Current developments on the implementation of trauma informed care (TIC) in a variety of service systems call for the surveillance of trauma, resiliency, functional capacity, and health impact of ACEs. Despite such efforts in adult medical care, early identification of childhood trauma in children still remains a significant public health need. This article reviews childhood adversity and traumatic toxic stress, presents epidemiologic data on the prevalence of ACEs and their physical and mental health impacts, and discusses intervention modalities for prevention.

Making judgments about risk in substantiated cases of supervisory neglect

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine which factors were used by investigators to determine level of risk among substantiated cases of supervisory neglect. The conceptual model included three sets of factors-the severity of the supervision problem, characteristics of the mother (e.g., prior involvement with child protective services (CPS), motivation, substance use) and characteristics of the investigator-as potential explanations for increased risk. METHODS A case-control design was used to compare 113 mothers whose names were placed on the child abuse registry for substantiated supervisory neglect (higher risk) with 45 mothers whose names were not placed on the registry but who had a substantiated report of supervisory neglect (lower risk). Two readers coded every investigative report. RESULTS Five out of 14 of the predictors had a unique effect on the investigators assessment of higher risk in the multivariate analysis: a child was harmed, the mother did not take responsibility for the problem, there was no extenuating circumstance, she was being battered, and she had prior involvement with CPS. There was also an interaction between being battered and the type of supervision problem. When a mother failed to protect her child from a third party, being battered decreased the likelihood that the investigator would place the mothers name on the states registry. CONCLUSION More research is needed on specific types of supervision problems to develop a risk assessment instrument for supervisory neglect. Without one, it is difficult to see how investigators and others can be expected to know whether a child is likely to be harmed in the future.