43 research outputs found
Fathers, physical child abuse, and neglect: Advancing the knowledge base
No full textFathers are overrepresented as perpetrators of physical child maltreatment, particularly in its most severe forms. Despite this, the research literature continues to lack specificity regarding the role fathers play in risk for physical child abuse or neglect (PCAN). Furthermore, although fathers have received more attention with respect to child sexual abuse and its treatment, their influence has been largely disregarded in many intervention efforts to reduce PCAN. Inadequate attention to the role of fathers, both in research and practice, has numerous problematic implications for the prevention of child maltreatment. The goal of this special issue is to disseminate new research that examines fathers’ roles by focusing on multiple fathering factors that may directly and indirectly shape both maternal and paternal risk of engaging in PCAN. In the introduction to the special issue, we highlight key questions in the research literature and present our perspective on how the articles included in this special issue address some of these gaps.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106173/1/2009-Lee-Bellamy-Guterman-CM-Intro.pd
Fathers and maternal risk for physical child abuse
No full textThis study set out to examine father-related factors predicting maternal physical child abuse risk in a national birth cohort of 1,480 families. In-home and phone interviews were conducted with mothers when index children were 3 years old. Predictor variables included the mother--father relationship status; father demographic, economic, and psychosocial variables; and key background factors. Outcome variables included both observed and self-reported proxies of maternal physical child abuse risk. At the bivariate level, mothers married to fathers were at lower risk for most indicators of maternal physical child abuse. However, after accounting for specific fathering factors and controlling for background variables, multivariate analyses indicated that marriage washed out as a protective factor, and on two of three indicators was linked with greater maternal physical abuse risk. Regarding fathering factors linked with risk, fathers' higher educational attainment and their positive involvement with their children most discernibly predicted lower maternal physical child abuse risk. Fathers' economic factors played no observable role in mothers' risk for physical child maltreatment. Such multivariate findings suggest that marriage per se does not appear to be a protective factor for maternal physical child abuse and rather it may serve as a proxy for other father-related protective factors.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106175/1/2009-Guterman-Lee-Lee-etal.-CM.pd
Intimate partner violence, maternal stress, nativity, and risk for maternal maltreatment of young children
No full textObjectives. We examined the associations of intimate partner violence (IPV) and maternal risk factors with maternal child maltreatment risk within a diverse sample of mothers.
Methods. We derived the study sample (N=2508) from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study.Weconducted regression analyses to examine associations between IPV, parenting stress, major depression, key covariates, and 4 proxy variables for maternal child maltreatment.
Results. Mothers reported an average of 25 acts of psychological aggression and 17 acts of physical aggression against their 3-year-old children in the year before the study, 11% reported some act of neglect toward their children during the same period, and 55% had spanked their children during the previous month. About 40% of mothers had experienced IPV by their current partner. IPV and maternal parenting stress were both consistent risk factors for all 4 maltreatment proxy variables. Although foreign-born mothers reported fewer incidents of child maltreatment, the IPV relative risk for child maltreatment was greater for foreign-born than for US-born mothers.
Conclusions. Further integration of IPV and child maltreatment prevention and intervention efforts is warranted; such efforts must carefully balance the needs of adult and child victims.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106171/1/2009-Taylor-Guterman-Lee-Rathouz-AJPH.pd
Paternal Psychosocial Characteristics and Corporal Punishment of their 3-Year Old Children
No full textThis study uses data from 2,309 biological fathers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine associations between psychosocial characteristics and levels of corporal punishment (CP) toward their 3-year old children over the past month. Results indicate that 61% of the fathers reported no CP over the past month, 23% reported using CP once or twice, and 16% reported using CP a few times in the past month or more. In multivariate models controlling for important socio-demographic factors as well as characteristics of the child, fathers’ parenting stress, major depression, alcohol use, and drug use were significantly associated with greater use of CP, whereas involvement with the child and generalized anxiety order were not. Girls were less likely to be the recipient of CP than boys, and child externalizing behavior problems but not internalizing behavior problems were associated with more CP.Fragile families, childbearing, nonmarital childbearing, fartherhood, fathers, corporal punishment, behavior problems, stress, depression
Use of spanking for 3 year-old children and associated intimate partner aggression or violence
No full textOBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to examine associations
between maternal and paternal use of corporal punishment (CP) for
3-year-old children and intimate partner aggression or violence (IPAV)
in a population-based sample.
METHODS: The study sample (N 1997) was derived from wave 3 of
the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Mother and father reports
regarding their use of CP and their IPAV victimization were analyzed.
IPAV included coercion and nonphysical and physical aggression.
RESULTS: Approximately 65% of the children were spanked at least
once in the previous month by 1 or both parents. Of couples who
reported any family aggression (87%), 54% reported that both CP and
IPAV occurred. The most prevalent patterns of co-occurrence involved
both parents as aggressors either toward each other (ie, bilateral
IPAV) or toward the child. The presence of bilateral IPAV essentially
doubled the odds that 1 or both parents would use CP, even after
controlling for potential confounders such as parenting stress, depression,
and alcohol or other drug use. Of the 5 patterns of cooccurring
family aggression assessed, the “single aggressor” model,
in which only 1 parent aggressed in the family, received the least
amount of empirical support.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations
against the use of CP, CP use remains common in the United
States. CP prevention efforts should carefully consider assumptions
made about patterns of co-occurring aggression in families, given that
adult victims of IPAV, including even minor, nonphysical aggression
between parents, have increased odds of using CP with their children.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106170/1/2010-Taylor-Lee-Guterman-Rice-PEDS.pd
Parental perceptions of neighborhood processes, stress, personal control, and risk for physical child abuse and neglect
No full textObjective: This study set out to examine whether mothers’ individual perceptions of their
neighborhood social processes predict their risk for physical child abuse and neglect directly and/or indirectly via pathways involving parents’ reported stress and sense of personal control in the parenting role.
Methods: In-home and phone interview data were examined cross-sectionally from a national birth cohort sample of 3,356 mothers across 20 US cities when the index child was 3 years of age. Mothers’ perceptions of neighborhood social processes, parenting stress, and personal control were examined as predictors, and three subscales of the Parent-To-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-PC) were employed as proxies of physical child abuse and neglect risk. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test direct and indirect pathways (via parenting stress and control) from perceived neighborhood processes to proxy measures of physical child abuse and neglect. Multiple group SEM was conducted to test for differences across major ethnic groups: African American, Hispanic, and White.
Results: Although perceived negative neighborhood processes had only a mild direct role
in predicting risk for physical child abuse, and no direct role on child neglect, these perceptions had a discernable indirect role in predicting risk via parenting stress and personal control pathways. Parenting stress exerted the clearest direct role on both physical abuse and neglect risk. This predictor model did not significantly differ across ethnic groups.
Conclusions: Although neighborhood conditions may not play a clear directly observable
role on physical child abuse and neglect risk, the indirect role they play underscores the
importance of parents’ perceptions of their neighborhoods, and especially the role they
play via parents’ reported stress and personal control.
Practice implications: Such findings suggest that targeting parents’ sense of control and
stress in relation to their immediate social environment holds particular potential to reduce
physical child abuse and neglect risk. Addressing parents’ perceptions of their neighborhood challenges may serve to reduce parenting risk via improving parents’ felt control and stress.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106174/1/2009-guterman-lee-taylor-rathouz-CAN.pd
OVERCOMING POSITIVISM IN ECONOMICS: AMARTYA SEN'S PROJECT OF INFUSING ETHICS INTO ECONOMICS
No full textLogical Positivism, which arose in philosophy early in the twentieth century, proclaimed the sharp distinction between facts and values. Despite objections at the time, positivism was imported into economics in the 1930s. Over time, objections lessened; economics was transformed and ethical considerations were driven out of its core. In the 1950s, debates about positivism arose within the discipline which had exported it. According to the American philosopher Hilary Putnam, the fact/value distinction is now discredited in philosophy. If that is so, the methodological foundations of contemporary economics are also discredited. In this article I examine Amartya Sen’s moral science of economics. First, I will present his historical account of the connections between economics and ethics. Sen claims that there was a close connection between the two until positivism was imported. Second, I will sketch some of Sen’s ethical objections to modern economics, which is still suffering from positivism. Finally, I will lay out some of his ideas on how economics can be returned to an ethical path. Once the ground has been cleared of positivism, ethics can re-emerge in economics in various ways. One path has been marked out by Sen.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,
