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Personality Disorders in a Sample of Parents Accused of Physical Abuse or Neglect

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to provide a psychological profile of parents who have been formally accused of child maltreatment. A clinical group of 16 parents accused of physical abuse and 22 parents accused of neglect were compared with 18 parents from a control group. The MCMI-III was administered individually for each parent. Both groups of maltreatment showed significant differences on different scales of the MCMI-III. No difference was seen between the parents of both groups of child maltreatment. Many parents of both child maltreatment groups reported at least one form of abuse during their childhood, suggesting that a childhood marked by abuse or neglect on the part of a parent could result in personality disorders and that these disorders may have something to do with the intergenerational transmission of abuse.

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Acknowledgements

This study was carried out with the help of subsidies from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) granted to Pierre Nolin. The authors would also like to thank the Centre Jeunesse de la Mauricie et des Bois-Francs, family homes and community organizations that warmly accepted to help recruit participants. The authors would also like to express their gratitude toward the research assistants for their major participation during the testing process.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, P.O. Box 500, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada, G9A 5H7

    David Fontaine & Pierre Nolin

  2. Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Centre d’Études Interdisciplinaires sur le Développement de l’Enfant et la Famille (CEIDEF), Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada

    David Fontaine & Pierre Nolin

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Correspondence to David Fontaine.

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Fontaine, D., Nolin, P. Personality Disorders in a Sample of Parents Accused of Physical Abuse or Neglect. J Fam Viol 27, 23–31 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-011-9403-3

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