Ideas sobre la infancia y predisposición hacia el maltrato infantil

Resumen

Entre los distintos factores que suelen relacionarse con el maltrato infantil algunos autores destacan la importancia de las ideas o representaciones sociales que los padres tienen acerca de la infancia. Con el objetivo de evaluar la relación existente entre estas ideas y la predisposición hacia el maltrato, se llevó a cabo un estudio sobre 900 madres y padres andaluces elegidos al azar. Fue utilizado un cuestionario que recogía información sobre valores, expectativas y otras ideas referidas a la infancia y al maltrato. Además se aplicó una versión reducida del Child Abuse Potential Inventory para evaluar el riesgo potencial que los padres tenían de maltratar a sus hijos. Los resultados del estudio muestran que los padres difieren entre sí tanto en su predisposición hacia el maltrato como en las representaciones sociales que tienen sobre la infancia. Además existe una clara relación entre ambos aspectos, por lo que cabe suponer que estas ideas juegan un papel importante en la aparición de las conductas abusivas de los padres.

Abstract

Among the different factors usually associated with child abuse, some authors emphasize the importance of parents' ideas or social representations about childhood. The aim of the study was to evaluate the existing relationship between parents' ideas and tendency toward child abuse. 900 randomly chosen mothers and fathers from Andalusia filled in a questionnaire which included information on their values, expectations, and other ideas about childhood and child abuse. A reduced version of the Potential Child Abuse Inventory was also used to evaluate the potential risk of parents abusing their children. The study's results show that parents differ both in terms of their tendency toward abuse and in the social representations they have about childhood. There is also a clear relationship between both of these factors, allowing us to assume that they play an important role in parents' abusive conduct.

Extended Summary

Among the different factors considered to be related to child abuse, recently parents' ideas or representations about childhood have begun to be studied. It is reasonable to think that when parents deal with their children, they do so guided by a series of beliefs regarding what children are like and how they should be treated.

In this article we report results from a study carried out to establish the relationship between parents' ideas on abuse, in particular, and childhood in general, and a tendency toward child abuse. A questionnaire used on a random sample of 900 fathers and mothers allowed us to gather information about their expectations, educational values, needs attributed to childhood, discipline practices, and social representation of abuse. Mothers and fathers also received a reduced and adapted version of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAP), which provides information on the strength of parents' tendency to abuse their children.

Multiple correspondence analysis showed the existence of a clear relationship between many parents' social representations about childhood and their scores on the CAP. Parents with the highest scores—indicating a higher tendency toward child abuse—showed very high expectations toward their children and toward what they should be able to do at different ages. Children's behaviours, such as competitiveness or adapting to certain social norms or conventions, were valued more by these parents than by those with lower CAP scores. These demanding expectations and assessment of the child's behaviour and whether it conforms to certain norms could justify the fact that in dealing with some child behaviours considered transgressions, they show more stress and react using constraining discipline techniques.

There was also a clear relationship between parents' ideas and tendency to abuse their children, on the one hand, and some socio-demographic variables such as gender and educational and professional level on the other hand. Thus, the classification we carried out established the existence of five types, that differed between each other in terms of sex and education level. There were also differences in terms of their representations and CAP scores. In general terms, social status, represented by educational and professional level, seems to be the variable which most determines the tendency toward abuse, since the highest risk groups are those of fathers and mothers with the lowest educational and professional levels. Gender also showed a relationship with the tendency toward abuse, since the tendency is greater among mothers with more demanding expectations, higher stress levels, and stricter discipline than fathers. This study's results have made evident that the tendency toward abuse depends on the presence of different risk factors, and that parents' ideas about childhood in general and abuse in particular are among these factors.

Palabras Claves:

• Maltrato infantil
• ideas de padres
• predisposición hacia el maltrato

Keywords:

• Child abuse
• parents' ideas
• tendency toward child abuse