An examination of defense style in parents who abuse children.
The study aimed to determine the predominant defense style in parents who abuse their children, at least as determined by a new defense style questionnaire. The scores of 32 parents who had physically abused their young children and had been assessed after court proceedings were compared with a normal population sample and with patients with anxiety disorders who were equally symptomatic. Parents who had abused their children identified themselves as being particularly likely to use projection, displacement, passive-aggressiveness denial, and splitting to a degree greater than normal persons or patients with anxiety disorders. We would caution that, although the differences remained after statistical control of age and sex differences, a firm conclusion that such defenses are germane to child abuse will have to await replication of these findings with a study using a control group of young parents who do not abuse their children matched for social class and family structure.
Brennan
J
J
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Children's Hospital, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia.
Andrews
G
G
Morris-Yates
A
A
Pollock
C
C
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics