NCJ Number
162214
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 20 Issue: 7 Dated: (July 1996) Pages: 589-598
Date Published
1996
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this study was to estimate the gender- specific probability of a violent spouse also physically abusing his or her child, based on a sample of 3,363 American parents interviewed for the 1985 National Family Violence Survey.
Abstract
To be eligible for inclusion in the study, respondents had to be at least 18 years of age and either married, living as a man-woman couple, or a single parent with a child under 18. Physical child abuse and marital violence were measured using the Conflict Tactics Scale. Of husbands who were physically violent toward their wives, 22.8 percent engaged in physical child abuse. About 24 percent of violent wives engaged in at least one act of physical child abuse. The greater the amount of violence against a spouse, the greater the probability of physical child abuse by the physically aggressive spouse, and this relationship was stronger for husbands than for wives. The probability of child abuse by a violent husband increased from 5 percent with one act of marital violence to near certainty with 50 or more acts of marital violence. The predicted probability of child abuse by a violent wife increased from 5 percent with one act of marital violence to 30 percent with 50 or more acts of marital violence. Implications of the study findings for divorce custody proceedings are discussed. 23 references, 5 tables, and 1 figure