Observing child abuse

Evidence from a study conducted at the New York Foundling Hospital and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as well as previous research by the investigators, shows that abusive mothers are insensitive to the moods and signals of their children. A quantitative analysis of videotaped interaction sequences of 12 mother-child dyads indicated that abusive mothers spend less time looking at their children, are less focused in their attention on them, barrage them with words and actions that are unmodulated by the child's response, are physically coercive, and spend more time issuing directives and orders than mothers from similar backgrounds who do not physically abuse their children. We suggest that child abuse is part of a complex interaction system characterized by lack of mutual attunement between caretaker and child, of which acts of physical violence are dramatic exemplars. These data support the view that in order to ameliorate parenting skills of abusive parents, interactive patterns that appear early in the caretaker-child relationship must be understood and addressed.