A stress and coping model of child maltreatment

doi:10.1016/0272-7358(94)90025-6

Clinical Psychology Review

Volume 14, Issue 4, 1994, Pages 261-285

https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7358(94)90025-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

The evolution of theoretical approaches to child maltreatment has progressed to the point of complex, multifactorial models that incorporate parental, child, and ecological variables. These models are briefly reviewed and it is noted that they offer comprehensive descriptions of the potential antecedent factors that may initiate and maintain child maltreatment. The most recent formulations in this domain, however, have now begun to converge on the notion that levels of caregiver stress may play a critical role in determining child maltreatment. Accordingly, this paper describes in detail a stress and coping model of child maltreatment. Drawing from current literature on psychological processes relating to stress and coping, this model documents the various means whereby stress levels may become enhanced in caregivers, and thus contribute to increased child maltreatment. The model encompasses both child neglect and physical abuse, and integrates fundamental findings from these two maltreatment domains with psychological theory and research on stress and coping. In this model, we highlight the critical functions of the caregiver's cognitive appraisals and coping strategies in furthering our understanding of explanations of child maltreatment. Additional implications of this stress and coping model for research and clinical practice in the child maltreatment domain are then discussed.

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A stress and coping model of child maltreatment

Abstract

Child Abuse and Neglect

Clinical Psychology Review

Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry

Clinical Psychology Review

Does coping help? A reexamination of the relation between coping and mental health

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

The hardy personality: Cognitive and physiological response to evaluative threat

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Etiological models of child maltreatment

Behavior Modification

Models of child abuse: A metatheoretical analysis

Criminal Justice and Behavior

Child maltreatment: An ecological integration

American Psychologist

Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment: A revision of the preschool scale

American Journal of Mental Deficiency

Social cognitions as organizers of autonomic and affective responses to social challenge

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Developmental perspectives on the etiology, intergenerational transmission, and sequelae of child maltreatment

New Directions for Child Development

Cognitive theory and therapy of anxiety and depression

Is treatment too late? What ten years of evaluation research tell us

Prevention of neglect and nonorganic failure to thrive

School performance and disciplinary problems among abused and neglected children

Developmental Psychology

Aggression as impression management

Social Psychology

If it changes it must be a process: A study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Contributions of infant characteristics to child abuse

American Journal of Mental Deficiency

A preliminary study of some ecological correlates of child abuse: The impact of socioeconomic stress on mothers

Child Development

Child abuse as psychopathology: A sociological critique and reformulation

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

Circumstances surrounding the occurrence of child maltreatment

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Psychosocial and background factors in emotional abuse of children

Child: Care, Health and Development

Child abuse potential and parenting stress: Relationships in maltreating parents

Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Future directions in the treatment of physical child abuse

Criminal Justice and Behavior

Coping humor, stress, and cognitive appraisals

Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science

Self-esteem and stress as factors in abuse of children

Psychological Reports