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Parental Attitudes in Child Maltreatment
Cláudia Camilo1, Margarida Vaz Garrido1, Maria Manuela Calheiros1,2
1Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Cis_Iscte, Portugal.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
|July 28, 2020
Summary
Maladaptive parenting, particularly neglect, is linked to biased cognitive schemas about child-rearing. Both explicit and implicit parental attitudes showed associations with neglect, especially when reported by professionals.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Child Development
- Social Cognition
Background:
- Maladaptive parenting may stem from biased cognitive schemas regarding child development and rearing.
- Previous research often overlooked the distinction between abuse and neglect, and relied on explicit parental attitudes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the association between parents' explicit and implicit attitudes and child abuse and neglect within the Social Information Processing (SIP) framework.
- To investigate the role of cognitive schemas in maladaptive parenting, differentiating between abuse and neglect.
Main Methods:
- A sample of 201 mothers, including those referred to child protection services, completed measures of explicit parental attitudes and a speed-accuracy task for implicit attitudes.
- Child abuse and neglect were assessed using self-report and professional reports.
Main Results:
- Biased cognitive schemas, specifically parental attitudes, were associated with maladaptive parenting, particularly neglect reported by professionals.
- Findings from explicit and implicit attitude measures converged, indicating that mothers with more inadequate explicit attitudes also performed worse on the implicit task.
Conclusions:
- The study supports the SIP model by highlighting sociocognitive factors in maladaptive parenting, especially neglect.
- Results offer insights for developing targeted prevention and intervention programs for at-risk parents.
Keywords:
child abuse and neglectinformation processingmaladaptive parentingparental attitudesparental cognitionsMore Related Videos
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