M. Angeles Cerezo

Mother-child interactive patterns in abusive families versus nonabusive families : An observational study

The interest in aspects relative to the maintenance of aversive family interactions is common among investigators who, from many different fronts, treat child and family issues. If these interactions end in episodes of physical abuse of a child by his/her parents, the need to quickly detect these patterns of family violence in order to prevent and treat them is all the more urgent. The present work falls within this context and focuses on a detailed analysis of behavior in the home of both the abusive mother and the victimized child. In line with recent investigations, the work also centers on the analysis of the actual mother-child interaction by carrying out a focused analysis of the behavior of the dyad given that these behaviors greatly affect each other. The study was conducted with a group of 23 mother-child dyads that presented episodes of physical abuse towards the child, and a control group of 24 dyads that did not present any interactional problems. The dyads were observed at home by a group of trained observers using the SOC III system of direct observation (Standardized Observation Codes IIIrd revision, Cerezo, 1991; Cerezo, Keesler, Dunn, & Wahler, 1986). Three stepwise discriminant function analyses were carried out for the variables relative to the maternal behavior, the childs behavior, and the measurement of the mother-child sequence of interaction. The results indicate that behaviors with a negative valence better classify the subjects into the groups to which they belong, obtaining a better classification when the variables relative to the interaction are used in the analysis. It can be concluded that it is necessary to include this measurement in future analysis due to its great classificatory and predictive value.

Mother-child interactional patterns in high-and low-risk mothers☆

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to determine the extent to which mother-child interactional patterns in high- and low-risk (for child physical abuse) mothers were similar to patterns observed in physically abusive parents. METHOD Ten high-risk and 10 demographically similar low-risk mother-child dyads were studied. Trained observers coded maternal-child interaction patterns in the home during five 1-hour periods using the Standardized Observation Codes system. RESULTS As expected, high-risk mothers made fewer neutral approaches to their children, displayed more negative behaviors toward their children, and made more indiscriminant responses to their childrens prosocial behavior. Expected risk group differences were not found in the number of neutral instructions or positive responses, albeit the proportion of positive responses out of the total number of positive and negative responses was higher for low-risk mothers. After control for educational differences, risk group differences remained in the rates of neutral approaches and the number of indiscriminant behaviors made in response to childrens prosocial behaviors. CONCLUSIONS The observational data indicated that high-risk mothers display some behaviors similar to those observed in physically abusive mothers. The finding that high-risk mothers made more indiscriminate or noncontingent responses when reacting to their childrens prosocial behavior is consistent with a coercive model of child physical abuse.

Sequential analyses in coercive mother-child interaction: the predictability hypothesis in abusive versus nonabusive dyads.

OBJECTIVE A two-fold purpose guided the present study: 1) To test the sequential relationship between the childs aversive behavior and both the predictability and the compliance episodes, as well as the sequential relationship between these two mothering episodes proposed by the new predictability hypothesis (Wahler, Williams, & Cerezo, 1990); 2) to explore whether or not these patterns are specific to these dysfunctional dyads by using a nonabusive comparison group. METHOD Fifty mother-child dyads, 25 abusive and 25 nonabusive, participated in this study. Lag sequential analyses were carried out on 302 hours of direct observation, 178 hours in the abusive group, and 124 in the nonabusive group. RESULTS Results of the sequential analyses showed that the predictions derived from the compliance and predictability hypotheses were supported in both groups. The only difference between the groups lies in the new predictability hypothesis, so the two mothering reactions are not sequentially related in the nonabusive group. CONCLUSIONS This study revealed interesting findings which suggest that these patterns are also found in nonabusive mother-child interactions, but there is a qualitative difference between the groups.

Supporting parenting of infants: evaluating outcomes for parents and children in a community-based program.

This research presents an evaluation of the intervention dose-effect of the Parent-Child Psychological Support Program (PCPS). The PCPS is a universal community-based program to support parenting, during the first 18 months, and to promote protective adaptive systems in children through a schedule of quarterly office-based appointments, starting at 3 months of age. Generally children attend for six visits. When the Program opens in a particular area, parents of all children under 18 months are invited. The different ages of the children who are joining present a unique opportunity to obtain groups to evaluate the program dose-effect using a cohort-sequential design. This dose-effect on parent and infant outcomes was examined by: (1) self-report of parental sense of competence and factors negatively affecting their parenting and (2) the quality of the childs attachment, using Ainsworths Strange Situation Test. The study was based on 594 families. Results showed dose effects for parental sense of competence, in the parental self-efficacy dimension. The proportion of securely attached children was significantly higher in groups with medium and high program dose. These results were obtained after considering the effect on the parent and child outcomes of two socio-demographic factors that showed differences among the groups under study: single parenthood and working at home. In the variables under study the PCPS, serving a socially deprived area, showed dose effects. The evaluation strategy can be useful for evaluators and planners working with universal programs that offer a longitudinal service.

Ecosystem Adversity as Setting Factors in Mothers' Judgment of Child Behavior and Indiscriminate Mothering

Several studies have shown that troubled mothers are not accurate observers of their childrens behavior. These mothers have a global and usually blame-oriented reporting style coloured by disphoric views of social isolation, social coercion and socioeconomic disadvantage. The dsyphoric view describes a number of contextual or setting factors that seem to influence a mothers observational reports about her child more than the childs actual behavior does. Of course, when this observational bias exists, the mothers parenting performance is bound to be comprised. According to the considerations above, this study was designed with a group of 21 mother-child dyads characterized by their coercive interactions and child abuse (physical and emotional). The children were school-aged children ranging from 4 to 14 years of age and all mother-child dyads were observed at home. Two sets of analyses were conducted, one related to the maternal perception and one related to maternal behavior. The maternal judgment of ...

The Mothering of Conduct Problem and Normal Children in Spain and the USA: Authoritarian and Permissive Asynchrony

Ninety-two clinic-referred and nonclinical mother-child dyads in Spain and the USA were observed in their home settings under naturalistic conditions for a total of 477 hours. Children in the clinic-referred dyads were considered troubled because of conduct problems. The observations were aimed at assessing two forms of mother-child asynchrony, either of which was expected to differentiate clinic referred from nonclinical dyads. Authoritarian asynchrony was defined as a mothers indiscriminate use of aversive reactions to her child, whereas the permissive form entailed indiscriminate positive reactions. Results showed the American mothers to generate more permissive asynchrony, whereas the Spanish mothers were inclined in the authoritarian direction. Only authoritarian asynchrony differentiated the clinical versus nonclinical dyads in each country. Discussion was centered on the greater salience of aversive as opposed to positive maternal attention, and cultural differences between countries that might have accounted for the different parenting styles.

Modifying the Family Process in Two Cases of Physical Child Abuse and Secondary Functional Encopresis

In this article, a treatment working model is proposed and applied to two cases of multiproblem families with severe physical child abuse. Stimulus events that directly affect the likelihood of a physically abusive episode and setting factors that play an important indirect role because they increase the number of confrontations and decrease parental competence are considered. The child abuse cases involved major parenting deficits, maternal psychopathology, a major psychosomatic problem (childhood encopresis), and symptoms of childhood conduct disorder, which occurred in a setting of family distress, low income, and sibling distress. This study demonstrates how a two-phase comprehensive parent intervention, paralleling the stimulus versus setting factor distinction, can deal effectively with such multiproblem families. Treatment results and a 7-month follow-up assessment illustrate the utility and validity of the proposed scheme when applied in the real world where the relational character of the problems makes them multidimensional.

Parental and Infant Gender Factors in Parent–Infant Interaction: State-Space Dynamic Analysis

This study aimed to investigate the influence of parental gender on their interaction with their infants, considering, as well, the role of the infant’s gender. The State Space Grid (SSG) method, a graphical tool based on the non-linear dynamic system (NDS) approach was used to analyze the interaction, in Free-Play setting, of 52 infants, aged 6 to 10 months, divided into two groups: half of the infants interacted with their fathers and half with their mothers. There were 50% boys in each group. MANOVA results showed no differential parenting of boys and girls. Additionally, mothers and fathers showed no differences in the Diversity of behavioral dyadic states nor in Predictability. However, differences associated with parent’s gender were found in that the paternal dyads were more “active” than the maternal dyads: they were faster in the rates per second of behavioral events and transitions or change of state. In contrast, maternal dyads were more repetitive because, once they visited a certain dyadic state, they tend to be involved in more events. Results showed a significant discriminant function on the parental groups, fathers and mothers. Specifically, the content analyses carried out for the three NDS variables, that previously showed differences between groups, showed particular dyadic behavioral states associated with the rate of Transitions and the Events per Visit ratio. Thus, the transitions involving ‘in–out’ of ‘Child Social Approach neutral – Sensitive Approach neutral’ state and the repetitions of events in the dyadic state ‘Child Play-Sensitive Approach neutral’ distinguished fathers from mothers. The classification of dyads (with fathers and mothers) based on this discriminant function identified 73.10% (19/26) of the father–infant dyads and 88.5% (23/26) of the mother–infant dyads. The study of father-infant interaction using the SSG approach offers interesting possibilities because it characterizes and quantifies the actual moment-to-moment flow of parent–infant interactive dynamics. Our findings showed how observational methods applied to natural contexts offer new facets in father vs. mother interactive behavior with their infants that can inform further developments in this field.