title: Risk of physical abuse to children of spouse abusing parents.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002655:Child Custody; D004243:Divorce / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012737:Sex Factors; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology