Child Abuse: Physical

Causes

Many theories have examined the causes behind acts of physical abuse. Since the 1970s, researchers have worked to develop models of the characteristics of acts physical abuse committed against children. Current perspectives agree that physical abuse is not caused by one or two factors but by a system of interconnected characteristics and events. The majority of causes can be organized into three broad categories: parent– child interactional variables; environmental and life stress variables; and social, cultural, and economic variables.

Interactional Perspective

Interactional perspectives generally view physical abuse as originating from a dysfunction in the relationship between the child and the perpetrator, most often the parent. The parent perceives the child as hard to manage, and he or she is significantly stressed by the child's behavior. Perpetrators tend to be young parents who lack experience managing child behavior. Without accurate information regarding appropriate developmental milestones, the parent comes to view even typical behavior (e.g., a toddler having a tantrum) as pathological. The potential perpetrator has unrealistic expectations for the child's behavior, creating a cycle whereby the child is seen as misbehaving when he or she is acting normally. Often, these parents have few social supports or examples of child behavior for comparison, and subsequently they feel easily overwhelmed by the child's conduct. A negative bias toward the child is often present in the mind-set of parents who physically abuse children; therefore, they tend to interpret most of the child's behavior as disruptive or noncompliant. Indeed, perpetrators tend to have a high demand for compliance from their child, and this creates more opportunities for the child to get into trouble.

About one-third of parents who physically abuse children have a history of being victims of abuse in their own childhood, making it harder for them to know the characteristics of positive parenting firsthand. As a result, these parents often lack the requisite empathy necessary for positive parent–child relationships. Without empathy for the child's experience, the parent tends to interpret any act of misbehavior as a direct challenge to his or her authority. Perpetrators tend to have a limited repertoire of disciplinary skills and use aggressive methods to manage their child's behavior. Unfortunately, without alternatives to aggression, these parents find that they have to use harsher techniques each time the child disobeys because the child becomes habituated to the aggression of the parent. Perpetrators often respond to the child's behavior with an aggressive style and fail to adjust their response to the severity of the child's disobedience.

Parents who physically abuse children tend to exhibit low levels of positive or warm responses to their child's conduct, even when the child is compliant. Intrusiveness tends to be a hallmark of their interactions; little of what the child does escapes the parent's attention. Finally, parents who are at risk of physically abusing their children tend to use ambiguous commands when directing their child instead of specific commands that clearly let the child know what behavior is expected. Without a clear understanding of what the parent wants from the child, the child is at greater risk of failing to comply with the parent's demands.

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