Ma. Cerezo et al., MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTIVE PATTERNS IN ABUSIVE FAMILIES VERSUS NONABUSIVE FAMILIES - AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY, Child abuse & neglect, 20(7), 1996, pp. 573-587
The interest in aspects relative to the maintenance of aversive family
interactions is common among investigators who, from many different f
ronts, treat child and family issues. If these interactions end in epi
sodes of physical abuse of a child by his/her parents, the need to qui
ckly detect these patterns of family violence in order to prevent and
treat them is all the more urgent. The present work falls within this
context and focuses on a detailed analysis of behavior in the home of
both the abusive mother and the victimized child. In line with recent
investigations, the work also centers on the analysis of the actual mo
ther-child interaction by carrying out a focused analysis of the behav
ior of the dyad given that these behaviors greatly affect each other.
The study was conducted with a group of 23 mother-child dyads that pre
sented episodes of physical abuse towards the child, and a control gro
up of 24 dyads that did not present any interactional problems. The dy
ads were observed at home by a group of trained observers using the SO
C III system of direct observation (Standardized Observation Codes III
rd revision, Cerezo, 1991; Cerezo, Keesler, Dunn, & Wahler, 1986). Thr
ee stepwise discriminant function analyses were carried out for the va
riables relative to the maternal behavior, the child's behavior, and t
he measurement of the mother-child sequence of interaction. The result
s indicate that behaviors with a negative valence better classify the
subjects into the groups to which they belong, obtaining a better clas
sification when the variables relative to the interaction are used in
the analysis. It can be concluded that it is necessary to include this
measurement in future analysis due to its great classificatory and pr
edictive value.