HOME ENVIRONMENT AND PARENTAL ACCEPTANCE-REJECTION AND AUTHORITARIANISM IN CHILD ABUSE

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to (lssess the phenomenon oj' child ahuse and neglect as prevailing in the society and kind oj'ahllse mainly iI?/licted hy the parents to their children. The study also fo cllsed on the relationship o{ child ahuse and neglect with the patterns a/parental acceptance-rejection towards their children and the role these patterns played in child ahuse . .To explore the role (?ffclmily em'ironment in child abuse was another o~jective oj'the study. Furthermore, the role (~{pate/'l1({ 1 personality characteristic of authoritarianism in child ahuse and neglect was also investigated with special reference to Pakistani cultural cOl1text. The research was c(frried out il1 t1l'O parts i.e., pilot study and main study. In the pilot study an indigenolls Child Ahuse Scale (CAS) comprising of 3-1 items was developedfhr the children (?j'age mnging.t;·om <-1-/2 years to identifY abuse and the type ofahuse. Urdu version 0/1ndex oj'F(fmily Relations (.%ah & Aziz, 1993) was adapted to measure intra:/elll1ilial inte!'({ction within the fi.lI11ify. In addition, a Paternal Authoritarian Scale (PAS) consisting oj'-I2 items 1ms prepared to the assess/athers' authoritarian altitude towards their children. The reslllt\· of the pilot study revealed a considerahly high reliahility and validity/or all the three scales i.e., CAS, PAS and IFR 1l'ith coefficient alpha (?j'.92 . . 86. and .95 respectively. The main study was carried out with a randomly selected sample (?f' 2{){} children (/O() hoys and 100 girls) and 200/elthers of the same children. The age range onhe children was 8-12 years and for fCithers it was 25-50 years. Children were administered/our scales including Child Ahuse Scale. Index oj' Family Relatiol1s (fml Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionn(fire. sepa/'({te .tiJrms for father and /IIother. whereas. the sample of/athers was ae/ministered Paternal A ut/ioritaria/1 Scale. The datu were collected fi -om six cities oj' Punjab including. Lahore. Multan. Mian C/1({nu. Sahiwal. GI!/rat and Rawalpindi-Islamabad. The results indicated tJ1at children were more emotionally or psychologically abused by the parents as compared to physicol ahuse. Boys and girls showed no difFerence with reference to level o{ahllse (lnd type oj'ahllse to which they are exposed. Severely ahused children perceived their porents. hoth/llther and mother as more rejecting (IS compared to mildly ahllsed childi·en. Sel'erel), ohllsed children also perceived their intrct:fi.ll1Iilial environment (IS more pl'OhleJJ1CItic und disturbing as compared to mildly abused children. Child aiJuse and neglect lI 'OS fimnd to he preva~el1t in all socio-ecol7ol11ic classes. while it It 'asfhund to he l7/ore prevolent in larger /clmilies as compared to smaller /cllllilie.l'. !V/oreover. parenlal educatiol1. 111 especially of mothers seemed to be an important contributing factor as children of highly educated mothers reported less abuse. Furthermore, the results revealed Ihal fathers of children included in the sample had, overall, authoritarian attitude depicting very important finding peculiar to Pakistani cultural context. The results also suggested that fathers with high educational levels might show a difference in their authoritarian attitude towards their children as compared to illiterate and less educated fathers. Fathers belonging to all levels of socio-economic. status, family size and family type were found to be equally authoritarian and it 'was also true for the age their level.