Elsevier

Child Abuse & Neglect

Volume 16, Issue 4, July–August 1992, Pages 541-551
Child Abuse & Neglect

Child abuse by mothers' boyfriends: Why the overrepresentation?

https://doi.org/10.1016/0145-2134(92)90070-8Get rights and content

Abstract

This study showed that although mothers' boyfriends perform relatively little child care, they are responsible for substantially more child abuse than other nonparental caregivers. Using data drawn from interviews with single mothers and records of child abuse substantiated through child protection investigation, mothers' boyfriends' overrepresentation in child abuse was traced to five conditions: (a) the location of their child care in single parent families; (b) their gender; (c) the absence of genetic relationship between mothers' boyfriends and their partner's children; (d) mothers' boyfriends' perceived illegitimacy as caregivers and family members; and (e) mothers' boyfriends' rivalry with their partner's children. The limitations of these findings and implications for future research are discussed.

Résumé

Cette étude démontre que même si les amants s'occupent peu de la garde des enfants des femmes qu'ils courtisent, ils sont plus aptes à la maltraitance que des personnes s'occupant d'enfants où il n'existe aucun lien de parenté. Ceci a été documenté à partir d'entrevues avec des mères qui élèvent seules leurs enfants et à partir de dossiers de services de protection confirmant la maltraitance. Cinq conditions ont été relevées pour expliquer cette surreprésentation des amants par rapport à la maltraitance: (a) le nombre d'heures que l'enfant et l'amant passent ensemble seuls; (b) le fait que l'amant soit du sexe masculin; (c) l'absence de liens biologiques entre l'enfant et l'amant; (d) la faible place légitime accordée à l'amant en tant que membre de la famille et gardien de l'enfant; (e) les coalitions entre divers membres de la famille, dont principalement la mère et ses enfants vs. l'amant; ou la mère et l'amant vs. les enfants. Les limites et les conclusions de cette recherche ainsi que les considérations par rapport à de futures recherches sont pesées.

Resumen

Este estudio demostró que a pesar de que los novios de las madres le ofrecen relativamente poco cuidado a los niños, son sustancialmente más responsables de abuso que otros de los cuidadores que no son los padres/madres. Utilizando datos de las entrevistas con madres solteras y los records de abuso a los ninos comprobados a través de la investigación del servicio de protección infantil, la exagerada representación de los novios se fundamentó en cinco condiciones: (a) la localización del cuidado de su hijo en las familias con un solo padre (la madre); (b) su sexo; (c) la ausencia de relación genética entre el novio de las madres y los hijos de su compañera; (d) la percepción de ilegitimidad de los novios de las madres como cuidadores y miembros de la familia; (e) la rivalidad de los novios de las madres con los hijos de su compaẽra. Se discuten las limitaciones de estos hallazgos así como sus implicaciones para investigaciones futuras.

References (38)

  • M Daly et al.

    Evolutionary social psychology and family homicide

    Science

    (1988)
  • J DeFrain et al.

    On our own: A single parent's survival guide

    (1987)
  • M.F Fasteau

    Men as parents

  • R.A Fein

    Examining the nature of masculinity

  • D.M Fergusson et al.

    Child abuse in New Zealand

    (1972)
  • D.M Fergusson et al.

    A proportional hazards model of family breakdown

    Journal of Marriage and the Family

    (1984)
  • D Finkelhor

    Common features of family abuse

  • F Furstenberg et al.

    Adolescent mothers in later life

    (1987)
  • J Giles-Sims

    The stepparent role: Expectations, behavior, and sanctions

    Journal of Family Issues

    (1984)
  • Cited by (54)

    • Household composition and maltreatment allegations in the US: Deconstructing the at-risk single mother family

      2019, Child Abuse and Neglect
      Citation Excerpt :

      More recent research with youth involved in child protective service agencies (Van IJzendoorn, Euser, Prinzie, Juffer, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2009) and with nationally representative samples of children (Turner et al., 2007; Turner, Finkelhor, Hamby, & Shattuck, 2013) has also concluded that rates of victimization were generally higher for youth from single parent and stepfamilies than for youth from two-parent families. Studies that have explored the relationship between family structure and violence towards children demonstrated that mothers' boyfriends were responsible for considerable abuse (Blaser, 1985; Krugman, 1982; Margolin, 1992) and that this abuse was both different in character and more likely to be lethal (Daly & Wilson, 1988) than abuse by biological fathers. According to Daly and Wilson, "When injuries are attributed to 'child abuse,' the difference between stepparent and genetic parent homes is large and is independent of risk attributable to low socioeconomic status, maternal youth, family size, or personality characteristics of the abusers" (Daly & Wilson, 1988, pg. 520).

    • The Great Recession and risk for child abuse and neglect

      2017, Children and Youth Services Review
    • Association of perpetrator relationship to abusive head trauma clinical outcomes

      2013, Child Abuse and Neglect
      Citation Excerpt :

      Furthermore, the findings of this study provide greater justification to recommend development of additional AHT prevention efforts to what currently exist for the young infant. We found similar results to previous work regarding the relationship of perpetrators to the children they injure (Margolin, 1992; Ricci et al., 2003; Starling et al., 1995; Starling et al., 2007) in studies of physical abuse and abusive head trauma. However, those studies were limited in reporting frequencies only, and did not include univariate analyses to evaluate the clinical features associated with perpetrator status.

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This study was supported by Harry Frank Guggenheim and University of Iowa Spelman Reckefeller research grants.

    View full text