title: Impact of stress and mitigating information on evaluations, attributions, affect, disciplinary choices, and expectations of compliance in mothers at high and low risk for child physical abuse.
abstract: The objective is to know if high-risk mothers for child physical abuse differ in their evaluations, attributions, negative affect, disciplinary choices for children's behavior, and expectations of compliance. The effect of a stressor and the introduction of mitigating information are analyzed. Forty-seven high-risk and 48 matched low-risk mothers participated in the study. Mothers' information processing and disciplinary choices were examined using six vignettes depicting a child engaging in different transgressions. A four-factor design with repeated measures on the last two factors was used. High-risk mothers reported more hostile intent, global and internal attributions, more use of power assertion discipline, and less induction. A risk group by child transgression interaction and a risk group by mitigating information interaction were found. Results support the social information-processing model of child physical abuse, which suggests that high-risk mothers process child-related information differently and use more power assertive and less inductive disciplinary techniques.
authors.affiliation: University of the Basque Country, Spain.
authors.forename: Joaquín
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Paúl
authors.forename: Nagore
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Asla
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pérez-Albéniz
authors.forename: Bárbara Torres-Gómez
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: de Cádiz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires