Jul 29 2008
Research, they key to discovery! The effects of abuse on young children.
The following is a reserach article that I studied and turned in for an assignment. I hope that you can learn as much from it as I did about abused children and the effects it has on their social and emotional behavior.
Research Article
TITLE: Social Interactions of Young Abused Children: Approach, Avoidance, and AggressionCarol George and Mary Main Child Development, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Jun., 1979), pp. 306-318
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development
FOUND: On the CSN Library JSTOR website: http://ezproxy.csn.edu:2162/stable/1129405?&Search=yes&term=daycare&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Ddaycare%26dc%3DEducation&item=3&ttl=374&returnArticleService=showArticle
Hypothesis:
The hypothesis of the study was to determine whether abused children would resemble relatively rejected children in normal samples. To study this toddlers between ages 1 and 3 were observed during social interaction with peers and caregivers in special daycare centers. They compared the behavior with matched controls from families experiencing stress. They expected that an abused infant would show similar behaviors to those who had been neglected: relatively more aggression, more avoidance, and more approach-avoidance conflict. They theorize that infants who suffer from abuse would be influenced in their social behavior that can be described at the following syndrome: They tend to avoid the mother rather than approach her or otherwise show attachment behaviors following brief separations. Abuse is also related to (1) the infant’s failure to approach other friendly adults at the moment that they attempt to establish social interaction; (2) to active visual and physical avoidance of these persons under these same conditions; (3) to hitting and threatening to hit the mother, active disobedience to the mother, and to other forms of angry behavior and finally that approach-avoidance movements are sometimes noted. The goal of the study was to see if abused children would fall at an extreme with respect to this syndrome.
Methodology:
The studies twenty children – 10 who were abused and 10 controls. Four females and Four males were included in each group. Age range was from 1 to 3 years of age. The participants were observed in two types of day care centers the first being for child-protection for battered children and the second being two control centers for families under stress. They took one year to study potential participants for the study, excluded sexual and neglect abuse cases, and focused on samples that differed only in histories of physical abuse. All children in the study were enrolled for the first time in daycare with the control children having had a few more months of enrollment, but not in average time spent at daycare. They were matched as completely as possible in the following demographics: sex, age, race, marital status of parents, mother’s and father’s education and occupation with father’s not always known, and the adult with whom the children were living at the time of the study. The severity of the abused children ranged from sever punishments to skull fractures, broken collar bones, and severe burns. Control children were not abused and participation in the two control daycares were voluntary as parents sought care for their child based on social and emotional factors.
The children were studied no less than 1 week apart in a naturalistic observation for 30 minutes by five trained students. Four of the five were kept blind to the specific hypothesis of the study; however, other factors identified the children as abused. The observers studies four mutually exclusive categories: approach, avoidance, approach-avoidance, and aggression while noting the “target” person (whether child or caregiver.) Each category was broken down into two sections and could be self initiated by child or after given instruction by a caregiver.
Author’s Conclusions:
Abused children resembled neglected children. The abused children displayed the syndrome of behavior. Compared with the control children the abused children showed aggression and were inhibited in approach and avoidance in response to friendly overtures. Although these first studies are not able to tell what proportion of abused children will exhibit the avoidance-aggressive syndrome it does lead to further conclusions. Abused children may readily be termed difficult and many who will be abused and share similar infantile traits such as: low birth weight, prematurely, birth complications, and neonatal illness and each make the care giving task more difficult.
To factors that broadly relate parents and their abused child is difficulty with controlling aggression, and that they tend to be both personally and socially isolated from the rest of the community, much due to self-imposed isolation. Finally that if future studies confirm and elaborate on this study that interventions in the abused-abusing cycle should start with the infant because of the trend of abused children being decedents of abused parents. Addressing the infant and the parent when abuse occurs could help stop further abuse from happening.
My Critique:
This study defined certain trends in the behavior of abused children. They showed twice as much aggression and were most likely to approach any caregiver with avoidance strategies. These differences from the control children make it far more likely that a child who has been abused can be noticed even if the physical signs do not represent themselves. Furthermore, avoidance of the parents may be more of an indicator of abuse, especially if the child shows a lack of attachment and uses aggression towards the parent. It shows that there are definitive differences in the way abused children respond to caregivers, peers, and parents. This study gives weight to the syndrome theory and supports its an avoidance-aggressive response to even positive interactions amongst others. There is a noticeable trend in the social and emotional responses of these children that can be identified. Further studies may indicate predictable patterns in these behavior areas that can be used as a determining risk factor of abuse.
How it can be used:
In a daycare setting dealing with young infants who cannot articulate with words that they are victims of abuse it is important to be aware of other indicators. Often times these signs are only in the form of physical signs such as bruises that are not adequately explained away. If we are in tune with the behavior of what an abused infant will show than we can be more alert to the possible abuse and possibly stop the abuse earlier. The study showed trends among parental behavior and infant behavior. If we can recognize these trends, it can help us to possibly prevent abuse from occurring. Although there are no guidelines as to using behavior as a predictor of abuse, there are guidelines that stipulate behavior as possible signs of abuse. Concrete evidence is always necessary to confirm that abuse is or has occurred. This study does not say that all abused children act this way and that children who have not been abused will not act this way. In fact, some of the control children did show avoidance behaviors. However these behavior trends were apparent across all of the abused children. Another important thing the study pointed out is that abused children would benefit from being included in a regular daycare with un abused children and that a specially trained professional needs to be present. Segregating abused children and placing them in an environment together does not allow for them to model the normal behavior of un abused children, further stunting their recovery and development.
