The Cycle Of Child Abuse

Children depend on parents and caregivers to look after them through childhood. Being protective is considered natural and instinctive and most children are well cared for by their parents. However, there are some children for whom a parents instinctive desire to protect is unrealized and children are thereby exposed to the risk of child abuse. Thus begins the cycle of abuse, which, once started, cannot be stopped.

Determining and moderating the causes of child abuse have been central objectives in all research, theory and methods of intervention in this complex area (Gelles and Loseke 1993). A recurrent theme in the child abuse literature for some time has been the notion that it is maltreated children who become abusive parents. It is hypothesized that children may learn to be abusive from parents who model abusive behavior. Alternative explanations have been that some children may have a genetic predisposition for aggressive behavior which is transformed into child abuse when the child becomes an adult. It may also be that intergenerational transmission is caused by a combination of genetic and social influences.

Domestic violence affects every member of the family, including children. It creates a home environment where children live in constant fear. Children who witness domestic violence are affected in ways similar to children who are physically abused. They are often unable to establish nurturing bonds with either parent. Children who witness abuse are 50 times more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, and six times more likely to commit suicide than children in the general population.

My analysis indicates that a child facing a domestically hostile environment develops fear, instability, and confusion. These become the key replacements of love, comfort, and nurturing that children need. These children live in constant fear of physical harm from the person who is supposed to care for and protect them. They may feel guilt at loving the abuser or blame themselves for causing the violence. The majority of them often start to do badly at school. At times, they get symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder - that is, have nightmares and flashbacks and be easily startled. Every child will be affected differently, based on the following factors:

Their interpretation of the experience (age influenced)

How they have learned to survive and cope with stress

The availability of supports (friends, relatives, and other adults)

Their ability to accept support and assistance from adults

This belief that child abuse can be transmitted across generations, or that a cycle of child abuse could be set up across generations was one of the earliest and most widely accepted theories of the causation of child abuse. Widom (1989) reported intergenerational transmission to be the premier hypothesis in the child abuse field.

There are three main theories proposed to account for the intergenerational transmission child abuse. First, under the principles of social learning theory, it is assumed that if a physically punitive parent ends up with an aggressive child, it is because the child has learned that pattern of response (Muller, Hunter and Stollak 1995). That is, aggressive or violent actions are learned via patterns of positive reinforcement and punishment which shape behavior, and/or from the observation and imitation of significant others who model aggressive behavior.

The parent role is one of the most nurturing, meaningful and powerful positions in a child's life, and each of these qualities have been shown to enhance the potential for the imitation of a model. It is therefore not surprising that under social learning theory, parents are perceived to be extremely powerful models for children.

Second, it is argued that there is a biological or genetic component to aggressive behavior, where aggressiveness is assumed to be an individual characteristic based in temperament. Under this theory a parent's predisposition for aggression or violence is thought to be inherited by a child. The punitive response of a parent is then assumed to be a response to the child's inherent character, rather than the aggressive behaviors the child has learned. The child's inherited predisposition also acts as the factor in the perpetuation of the cycle of child abuse, producing an increased probability of the child subsequently using corporal punishment or maltreating his/her own child.

Kaufman and Zigler (1993) contended that most studies of family violence have failed to consider the biological or genetic component to aggressive behavior. Many investigations of intergenerational transmission, particularly studies of corporal punishment and physical abuse, have assumed the underlying operation of social learning principles without directly testing the assumptions against alternative perspectives.

A third explanation put forward to explain the intergenerational transmission of violence is the interaction of environmental (social learning) and genetic factors. There does appear to be some evidence suggesting a genetic component to the expression of antisocial behavior (Kaufman and Zigler 1993), but that component alone, does not appear able to adequately explain the process by which corporal punishment is transmitted inter-generationally (Muller, Hunter and Stollak 1995). Kaufman and Zigler (1993) contended that a genetic predisposition merely puts an individual at risk for the expression of violent behavior, and that it is the interaction of genetic and environmental factors which produce the greatest risk of acting violently.

Although many parents believe that they can hide domestic violence from their children, children

...