engleski

Living in Abusive Family Relationships: Child's Reactions to Parental Conflicts of Lesser Intensity.

The research was performed with the goal to verify how parental experience of being verbally abused affects child's mood instability. The research was performed separately for mothers and for fathers. In the first sample 402 fathers and their 592 children were included in the study. In the second sample 438 mothers and their 640 children were included. Independent variable in both samples was the parental report of being verbally abused by spouse. Variable consisted of 2 categories:1 - not abused, 2- abused often or very often. Dependent variable in the study was child's mood instability, measured by 6-item 4 - point scale (internal consistency standardized a=.70). Content of factor validity of the scale was checked by principal component factor analysis. Factor loadings were minimum .50. Data on child's mood instability were obtained by mothers' reports. To get net effect of parents' experience of being verbally abused on the variable child's mood instability, we have included following control variables: child's gender, child's birth order, child's age, parental experience of being physically abused by spouse. According to the obtained results fathers' perception of being verbally abused affected child's mood instability after control was performed for the covariates while mothers' report of being verbally abused did not affect child's mood instability after control was performed for the covariates. The difference between results obtained for mothers' and fathers' experience of being verbally abused was explained by cultural factors or presence of traditional roles and values in the society.

child's mood instability; parental verbal abuse; parental physical abuse; parental symbolic abuse

nije evidentirano