The Psychological Factors Involved in Child Abuse

Child abuse is a term impacted by copious multidimensional and

interactive factors that relate to its origins and effects upon a

child's developing capacities and which may act as a catalyst to

broader, longer-term implications for adulthood. Such maltreatment may

be of a sexual, physical, emotional or neglectful nature, each form

holding a proportion of shared and abuse-specific psychological

considerations (Mash & Wolfe, 2005). Certainly in terms of the effects

/ impairments of abuse, developmental factors have been identified

across all classifications of child abuse, leading to a comparably

greater risk of emotional / mental health problems in adult life

within the general population (Mullen, Anderson, Romans, & Herbison,

1994).

With respect to the identification of vehicles of abuse and potential

psychological risk factors, research has focused upon the

'Microsystems' - or individual relationships and environmental

structures - that exist within the child's life (e.g. family, societal

and economic factors), and victim/offender characteristics that

interact with such environmental aspects to precipitate abuse

(Garbarino, 1994; Mash & Wolfe, 2005).

Incidence studies have evidenced such victim-related characteristics

as age, gender, health, and childhood behaviour to render children at

greater risk of abuse (Mash & Wolfe, 2005; Sullivan & Knutson, 2000;

Mullen & Flemming, 1998). For example, children with mental / physical

disabilities have been identified as up to three times at greater risk

of abuse in comparison to non-disabled peers (Sullivan & Knutson,

2000; Crosse, Kaye & Ratnofsky, 1993). Birth complications,

c...

... middle of paper ...

...merican Journal of

Psychiatry, 148, 10-20.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), (2003). Child

Maltreatment 2001. Administration on Children, Youth and Families,

Washington DC, U.S.A., Government Printing Office.

Wekerle, C. & Wolfe, D. (2003). Child maltreatment; Mash, E. &

Barkley, R. (Eds). (2nd ed.) Child Psychopathology, 632-684, New York,

U.S.A., Guildford Press.

Widom, C. (1989). The Cycle of Violence. Science, 244, 160-165.

Wolfe, D. (1999). Child Abuse: Implications for Child Development and

Psychopathology. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications.

Wolfe, D., Jaffe, P., Jette, J., & Poisson, S. (2003). The Impact of

Child Abuse in Community Institutions and Organisations: Advancing

Professional and Scientific Understanding. Clinical Psychology:

Science and Practice, 10, 179-191.