Psychosocial and background factors in emotional abuse of children

Summary Seven parents legally established as emotionally abusing their children were compared with a closely matched control group of seven ‘problem’ parents in a day nursery. The experimental group parents showed significantly more psychosocial and background factors associated with undifferentiated abuse or physical abuse and neglect; specifically, these factors included poor coping skills, difficulty in building relationships, and poor child management techniques. In addition, the emotionally abusing parents reported a significantly higher incidence of behavioural deviancy in their children than the control caregivers. Perceived stress and lack of support also appeared critical in differentiating the two groups. The results suggest that a background of emotional abuse or deprivation may predispose an adult to have inadequate or absent coping strategies to handle difficult child behaviour, resulting in a negative parent‐child interaction and failure to make use of outside support.