THE IMPACT OF MITIGATING INFORMATION ON ATTRIBUTIONS FOR POSITIVE ANDNEGATIVE CHILD-BEHAVIOR BY ADULTS AT LOW-RISK AND HIGH-RISK FOR CHILD-ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR

The present study investigated the impact of mitigating information on attributions for positive and negative child behaviors made by high- and low-risk (for physical child abuse) subjects. Children's behaviors were described in vignettes. One-half of the stories included mitigat ing information related to the child's behavior and one-half did not i nclude mitigating information. One-half of the stories described the b ehavior as that of the subject's child and one-half as that of someone else's child. As expected, the low-risk subjects showed more changes in their attributions (e.g., toward unstable and unintentional) when m itigating information was provided. The impact of mitigating informati on on attributions was independent of whether the child was their own or someone else's child. No overall attribution differences between gr oups or between positive and negative child behaviors were observed. L ow-risk subjects, however, selected more induction (e.g., requests and reasoning) disciplinary procedures for negative child behaviors and r eported less child maltreatment in their own childhood.