Psychological maltreatment in the context of separation and divorce

doi:10.1016/0145-2134(93)90030-9

Child Abuse & Neglect

Volume 17, Issue 4, July–August 1993, Pages 557-563

https://doi.org/10.1016/0145-2134(93)90030-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

Children of separating or divorcing parents seldom escape suffering psychological stress, particularly when the parents are in open conflict. How much should such children be allowed to suffer? The author discusses the problem of denning the terms “emotional child abuse” and “psychological maltreatment” as they are used in the literature. Reviewing the common behavioral patterns that children in this situation resort to and the roles that they tend to take upon themselves, he attempts to distinguish between those instances of stress that can be regarded as acceptable and those that must be considered harmful. With respect to children in this situation, the following behavior patterns are discussed: (a) the inclination of the child to sacrifice itself for the sake of the parents, in particular for the “weaker” one; (b) the tendency of the children to reach agreements among themselves about how they should be divided up; (c) the phenomenon of parentization in which the child assumes the role of the substitute partner for one or the other parent; and (d) the child's discovery of both its power and its helplessness with respect to the situation and the feelings of guilt awakened by this discovery.

Résumé

Rares sont les enfants de parents en instance de divorce ou de séparation qui échappent à la détresse psychologique, surtout lorsque leurs parents vivent le conflit ouvertement. Comment raisonnable est-il de voir souffrir un enfant? L'auteur explore la définition du terme “mauvais traitements psychiques,” tel qu'on le retrouve dans la littérature. Il passe en revue les comportements des enfants confrontés à cette situation et les rôles qu'ils adoptent. Il tente de distinguer entre le stress considéré comme acceptable et celui qui est noscif. Voici les comportements observés chez ces enfants: (a) ils sont portés à se sacrifier pour le bien de leurs parents, surtout pour le parent perçu comme le plus faible des deux; (b) ils cherchent à convenir qui d'entre eux ira avec tel ou tel parent; (c) ils assument des responsabilités de partenaire-substitut pour l'un ou l'autre des deux parents; et (d) ils découvrent leur pouvoir et leur impuissance devant la situation et devant leurs sentiments de culpabilité. Bien que les définitions de la maltraitance doivent comprendre les aspects psychologiques, on les inclut rarement, du moins en Allemagne. Depuis les dix dernières années, les chercheurs américains se sont penchés intensément sur le répertoire des traumatismes psychiques proposé lors de la Conférence internationale de 1983 sur les abus psychologiques faits aux enfants et aux jeunes. Dans la première partie de cet article, je discuterai des problèmes de définition des termes et des critères; ensuite, je présenterai des can typiques de mauvais traitements psychologiques associés au divorce et à la séparation.

Resumen

Los hijos de padres que se separan o se divorcian pocas veces escapan a sufrir stress psicólogico. Cuanto se debe permitir que estos niños sufran? El autor discute el problema para definir los términos abuso emocional a los niños y “maltrato psicológico” como son utilizados en la literatura. Se revisan los patrones comunes de conducta a que recurren los niños en esta situación y los roles que asumen, se intenta distinguir entre aquellos momentos de stress que pueden ser considerados como aceptables y aquellos que deben considerarse dañinos. En relación a los niños en esta situación, se discuten los siguientes patrones de conducta: (a) la inclinación del niõ a sacrificarse por los padres, en particular por el más “débil;” (b) la tendencia de los niños a llegar a acuerdos entre ellos sobre cómo deberían dividirse; (c) el fenómeno de la parentalización en que el niño asume el rol de la pareja sustituta de uno u otro de los padres; (d) y el descubrimiento del niño tanto de su poder como de su impotencia respecto a la situación y los sentimientos de culpabilidad que se despiertan por este descubrimiento. A pesar de que muchas definiciones de abuso a los niños incluyen el aspecto de abuso psicológico y/o emocional, el témino “abuso psicológico a los niños” no ha sido aceptado, por lo menos en Alemania. En los últimos diez años, los investigadores americanos had dedicado mucho esfuerzo a definir mejor las categorías de daño mental propuestas porla Conferencia Internacional del 1983 sobre Abuso Psicológico en los Niños y los Jóvenes. En la primera parte de este trabajo considero brevemente los problemas para definir términos e identificar criterios; en la segunda parte, discuto algunos casos típicos de maltrato psicólogico que ocurren en el contexto del divorcio y la separación.

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Cited by (16)

Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress
2016, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Citation Excerpt :
A child can figuratively become paralyzed when caught in a conflict of loyalties toward his or her parents and can no longer bear the ambivalence of power and helplessness and the accompanying feelings of guilt….[ A] frequently observed defensive reaction of the child is a sudden and exaggerated taking of sides with one parent and a turning against the other: resorting to unrealistic black and white, good and bad dichotomous thinking.41( p561)
A new condition, “child affected by parental relationship distress” (CAPRD), was introduced in the DSM-5. A relational problem, CAPRD is defined in the chapter of the DSM-5 under “Other Conditions That May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention.” The purpose of this article is to explain the usefulness of this new terminology.
A brief review of the literature establishing that children are affected by parental relationship distress is presented. To elaborate on the clinical presentations of CAPRD, four common scenarios are described in more detail: children may react to parental intimate partner distress; to parental intimate partner violence; to acrimonious divorce; and to unfair disparagement of one parent by another. Reactions of the child may include the onset or exacerbation of psychological symptoms, somatic complaints, an internal loyalty conflict, and, in the extreme, parental alienation, leading to loss of a parent–child relationship.
Since the definition of CAPRD in the DSM-5 consists of only one sentence, the authors propose an expanded explanation, clarifying that children may develop behavioral, cognitive, affective, and physical symptoms when they experience varying degrees of parental relationship distress, that is, intimate partner distress and intimate partner violence, which are defined with more specificity and reliability in the DSM-5.
CAPRD, like other relational problems, provides a way to define key relationship patterns that appear to lead to or exacerbate adverse mental health outcomes. It deserves the attention of clinicians who work with youth, as well as researchers assessing environmental inputs to common mental health problems.
Interactional effects of marital status and physical abuse on adolescent psychopathology
2002, Child Abuse and Neglect
Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the interactional effects of parental marital disruption and physical abuse on risk for adolescent psychopathology in a nonclinical sample with a randomly selected control group.
Method: The sample was drawn from 99 community-based adolescents indicated as physically abused by Child Protective Services and 99 randomly selected controls. Nonabused adolescents whose parents were married, abused adolescents whose parents were married, nonabused adolescents with a parental marital disruption, and abused adolescents with a parental marital disruption were compared. Outcome was psychopathology as measured by psychiatric diagnosis based on a best-estimate procedure subsequent to semistructured diagnostic interviewing.
Results: Interactional effects of marital disruption and abuse were found for risk for lifetime Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), with parental marital disruption and having been physically abused combining to increase the risk 15 times for diagnosis of lifetime ADHD. Parental marital status alone was not a significant risk factor for adolescent psychopathology, but physical abuse was a significant risk factor for several diagnostic categories.
Conclusions: Future divorce research should include abuse history as a possible confounding variable. Possible reasons for the findings are reviewed and clinical implications are discussed.
Emotional and psychological abuse: Problems of definition
1995, Child Abuse and Neglect
Defining “emotional abuse” and “psychological abuse” is a task made difficult by uncertainty as to whether or not such terms are synonomous and/or interchangeable. There is an increasing tendency in child protection literature to regard them as synonomous, or at least, to make little distinction between them. The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of this tendency, and to provide an alternative view, namely, that the terms are not synonomous, and there should be different definitions for each. Existing commonly used definitions are reviewed. The definitions that this paper provides stem from important concepts in emotional and psychological development.
Il est difficile de définir les termes “abus psychologique” et “abus émotionnel” car il n'est pas clair si les deux concepts veulent dire la même chose et/ou s'ils peuvent être substitués l'un pour l'autre. Dans la littérature portant sur la protection des enfants, on a tendance de plus en plus à les considérer comme synonymes ou, du moins, à apporter peu de distinction entre eux. Le but de cet article est d'explorer les origines de ces tendances et de fournir une perspective nouvelle, à savoir que les termes ne veulent pas nécessairement dire la même chose et qu'on devrait attribuer des définitions différentes à chacun des termes. L'article passe èn revue les diverses définitions que l'on retrouve. Les définitions proposées dans cet article se basent sur des concepts importants du développement affectif et psychologique.
Definir “maltrato emocional” y “maltrato psicológico” es una tarea difícil por la incertidumbre existente en relación a si tales términos son o no sinónimos y/o intercambiables. Hay una tendencia cada vez mayor en la bibliografia sobre protección infantil, a considerarlos como sinónimos o, al menos, a hacer sólo una pequeña distinción entre ambos. El propósito de este artículo es explorar los orígenes de esta tendencia, y proporcionar una visión alternativa, a saber, que los términos no son sinónimos, y que debe haber definiciones diferentes para cada uno de ellos. Se revisan las definiciones existentes y utilizadas habitualmente. Las definiciones que se proporcionan en este artículo proceden de conceptos importantes del desarrollo emocional y psicológico.
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The parental alienation (syndrome)-an underestimated kind of psychological abuse of children in the context of conflictual separation or divorce of parents
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Brief communicationPsychological maltreatment in the context of separation and divorce

Abstract

Résumé

Resumen

Arbeitsgruppe Kindesmißhandlung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der psychischen Mißhandlung

Präventiomed

The effects of mother-child separation: A follow-up study

British Journal Medical Psychology

Childhood bereavement and psychiatric illness

Kindesmißhandlung aus kinderpsychiatrischer Sicht

The psychologically battered child: Strategies for identification, assessment and intervention

Brief communication
Psychological maltreatment in the context of separation and divorce