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

• DOI: 10.1177/0886260506290411
• Publication Date: 2006-07-08T00:27:06Z
• Authors: Joaquín De Paúl; Nagore Asla; Alicia Pérez-Albéniz; Bárbara Torres-Gó...
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Personality Inventory; 05 social sciences; Mothers; Risk Assessment; Mother-Child Relations; Child Rearing; Punishment; 5. Gender equality; Spain; Surveys and Questionnaires; Humans; Female; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Child Abuse; Child

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 childrelated information differently and use more power assertive and less inductive disciplinary techniques.