Compiled by Christina Rodriguez of the University of Utah, Parental Discipline and Abuse Potential Affects on Child Depression, Anxiety, and Attributions examines how the treatment of children varies across a broad spectrum of variables. These variables include age, gender, severity of punishment, ethnicity, family income, parental age, and size of family. The assessment of these variables are analyzed via three Attributional Style tests that assess how each independent variable interacts with the dependent variable, which is expressed by how a child responds to punishment and/or abuse, while the independent variable focuses on severity of punishment, if any punishment at all. The main goal of this study is to better understand the causation
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This study not only addresses a child’s potential of vulnerability to psychological issues, but also addresses the potential for abuse by parents and/or guardians. Further, the study looks to correlate depressogenic attributional style and depressive/anxious symptomatology behavior in children of parents who use or have used harsh physical punishment and have a high abuse potential, versus those of a lower abuse potential. This journal article review will look at the information presented, and determine whether or not the findings by the author are consistent enough to merit additional research. The sample of this study consists of forty-two children from New Zealand, ages eight through twelve. Their parents were also a part of the sample, as their results were highly reciprocal of their children’s results, and vice versa. The participants were selected from schools in Dunedin, New Zealand, as part of a broader study being conducted of parents not identified as abusive. The focus of this second study was on “discipline beliefs and abuse potential.” According to the article, two randomly selected …show more content…
First, a Child Abuse Potential Inventory is conducted on the parents. This is a 160-item self-report measure involving attitudes and beliefs believed to be predictive of physical child abuse potential. Following that, a 7-point Likert scale was used, reporting on how frequently they use physical punishment on their children, from 1 (not at all) to 7 (often.) Higher total scores represent more severe discipline behavior, which, as compared to some other research methods such as observation, can suffer from social desirability bias among other validity issues. For the child, another self-report inventory method is used called the Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire. According to the article, this is a 48-item forced-choice measure designed to assess attributional style in children ages eight to 18. In the questionnaire, children select one of two options that best explains why a hypothetical situation in each item would have happened to them. They vary along the three attributional dimensions of internality, stability, and globality, with half of the items involving negative outcomes and half positive outcomes. Again, this can suffer from validity issues caused by a child’s knack of having a vivid imagination, and answering in a way that is conducive to their imagination. Two other questionnaires were used for the children, which were the Children’s Depression Inventory and the
This study not only addresses a child’s potential of vulnerability to psychological issues, but also addresses the potential for abuse by parents and/or guardians. Further, the study looks to correlate depressogenic attributional style and depressive/anxious symptomatology behavior in children of parents who use or have used harsh physical punishment and have a high abuse potential, versus those of a lower abuse potential. This journal article review will look at the information presented, and determine whether or not the findings by the author are consistent enough to merit additional research. The sample of this study consists of forty-two children from New Zealand, ages eight through twelve. Their parents were also a part of the sample, as their results were highly reciprocal of their children’s results, and vice versa. The participants were selected from schools in Dunedin, New Zealand, as part of a broader study being conducted of parents not identified as abusive. The focus of this second study was on “discipline beliefs and abuse potential.” According to the article, two randomly selected …show more content…
First, a Child Abuse Potential Inventory is conducted on the parents. This is a 160-item self-report measure involving attitudes and beliefs believed to be predictive of physical child abuse potential. Following that, a 7-point Likert scale was used, reporting on how frequently they use physical punishment on their children, from 1 (not at all) to 7 (often.) Higher total scores represent more severe discipline behavior, which, as compared to some other research methods such as observation, can suffer from social desirability bias among other validity issues. For the child, another self-report inventory method is used called the Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire. According to the article, this is a 48-item forced-choice measure designed to assess attributional style in children ages eight to 18. In the questionnaire, children select one of two options that best explains why a hypothetical situation in each item would have happened to them. They vary along the three attributional dimensions of internality, stability, and globality, with half of the items involving negative outcomes and half positive outcomes. Again, this can suffer from validity issues caused by a child’s knack of having a vivid imagination, and answering in a way that is conducive to their imagination. Two other questionnaires were used for the children, which were the Children’s Depression Inventory and the