Citation

Ross SM. Child Abuse Negl. 1996; 20(7): 589-598.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8832115

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to estimate the gender-specific probability of a violent spouse also physically abusing his or her child within a representative sample. The study is based on a sample of 3,363 American parents interviewed for the 1985 National Family Violence Survey. The study shows that marital violence is a statistically significant predictor 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. This relationship is stronger for husbands than for wives. The probability of child abuse by a violent husband increases from 5% 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 increases from 5% with one act of marital violence to 30% with 50 or more acts of marital violence. Implications for divorce custody proceedings are discussed.

Language: en