•Job loss increases risk for psychological and physical abuse during the pandemic.•Positive cognitive reframing mitigates risk of job loss on physical abuse.•Interventions targeting reframing may ...decrease risk for abuse during COVID-19.
Job loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic presents significant risk for child abuse. Protective factors, such as reframing coping, may mitigate the risk of job loss on child maltreatment.
The current study investigated factors associated with child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, including parental job loss, and whether cognitive reframing moderated associations between job loss and child maltreatment.
A community sample of 342 parents (62% mothers) of 4- to 10-year-olds (M = 7.38, SD = 2.01; 57.3% male) living in the United States completed online questionnaires regarding experiences with COVID-19, the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale, and the Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales.
Two logistic regression analyses evaluated predictors of whether parents psychologically maltreated or physically abused their children during the pandemic controlling for maltreating history, parental depressive symptoms, financial stability, parent age, parent gender, child age, and child gender. Parents who lost their jobs (OR = 4.86, 95% CI 1.19, 19.91, p = .03), were more depressed (OR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.02, 1.08, p < .01), and previously psychologically maltreated their children (OR = 111.94, 95% CI 28.54, 439.01, p < .001) were more likely to psychologically maltreat during the pandemic. Regarding physical abuse, a significant interaction between job loss and reframing coping emerged (OR = 0.76, 95% CI 0.59, 0.99, p = .04). Among parents who lost their jobs, the probability of physical abuse decreased as reframing coping increased.
Job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic is a significant risk factor for child maltreatment. Reframing coping may be an important buffer of this association on physical abuse and presents implications for maltreatment prevention.
Phenomenologically, the experience of home provides an orienting context in the world. Feeling at home is to live and be in the world in a secure way where one feels a sense of belonging and fit. ...This paper seeks to illustrate the phenomenological importance of home by drawing upon the phenomenological scholarship of at-homeness. The importance of at-homeness as explored in the phenomenological literature is then applied to the work of therapeutic and residential communities. As a place of dwelling, therapeutic communities may create a sense of home for individuals whom lack a sense of place or belonging. The work of R. D. Laing and the Philadelphia Association in creating therapeutic communities is considered in light of their potential provision of home for residents. Portions of interviews with former residents of the Philadelphia Association are reviewed (from the text Testimony of Experience) to shed light on how such communities appear to embody the phenomenological understanding of home and its importance in healing relational and existential wounds. Therapeutic communities are argued as a potential innovative treatment milieu for individuals suffering from existential homelessness and a lack of relational bonds.
This paper explores the theological and historical significance of communion in Scottish psychoanalysis as it influences the life and work of R.D. Laing. Particular attention is paid to Laing's ...conceptualization of communion as crucial in working with individuals suffering from schizophrenia. Specific case examples are culled from Laing's memoir Wisdom, Madness, and Folly: The Making of a Psychiatrist. Following Laing's work, communing with the other is argued as the essential precondition for healing as embodied in the work of some therapeutic communities, where physically communing, or being-with patients, is the impetus for psychological healing. Loren Mosher's Soteria House, influenced by the therapeutic communities of R.D. Laing and the Philadelphia Association, is examined as an application of the communion paradigm to psychological treatment.
Comments on the article by G. F. Principe and K. London (see record 2023-02505-001), which established that mother–child conversations about sexual abuse present a significant challenge for ...maltreatment investigations. In this commentary, the author expands upon the review by Principe and London by adopting an approach of developmental psychopathology. She emphasizes the interface of typical and atypical processes in considering the quality of mother–child relationships as a critical context that shapes mother–child conversations and children’s reports for experienced and nonexperienced abuse. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined the development of autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) in a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of 242 maltreated and nonmaltreated children (aged 36–86 months; 50.4% ...male; 39.7% Black, 25.9% White, 34.5% Latinx/other) and their mothers. Half of the maltreated families were randomized to receive an intervention to improve maternal reminiscing. The effects of maltreatment and the intervention on children’s AMS via two indices of maternal reminiscing, sensitive guidance, and elaboration, were evaluated. Bidirectional associations between AMS and child maladjustment were also examined. Intervention‐related improvement in maternal sensitive guidance 6‐month postintervention (b* = .36) related to greater AMS among maltreated children 1 year later (b* = .19). These findings underscore the role of maternal sensitive guidance in facilitating AMS.
•Historical IPV was associated with IPV during COVID-19 among families.•Isolation, household crowding, and income loss increased risk for IPV.•Among isolating families, crowding increased IPV ...regardless of income loss.
The COVID-19 pandemic presents significant risk for family violence. Risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) may be especially pronounced among families with young children that are isolating in crowded households and experiencing severe income loss. Because child exposure to IPV is increasingly recognized as a form and risk factor for child maltreatment, understanding factors contributing to IPV among families with young children can inform prevention and intervention efforts regarding family and child well-being during and after the pandemic. The present study examines the hypothesis that IPV during the pandemic would be more likely among families with a history of IPV that are isolating in crowded households and/or experiencing severe income loss resulting from the pandemic. Parents (n = 363) of 4- to 10-year-olds living in the United States completed an online survey with demographic, pandemic experiences, and IPV questionnaires. Family history of IPV was strongly associated with recurring IPV during the pandemic (Cramer’s V = .55). Induction rates of IPV during the pandemic were low; four families experienced IPV for the first time during the pandemic. Household isolation (r = .12), household crowding (r = .13), and severity of income loss (r = .25) were significantly and positively associated with IPV during the pandemic. Income loss was positively associated with IPV during the pandemic at low and average levels of household crowding. At high levels of household crowding, families were at high risk for IPV during the pandemic regardless of the severity of income loss. Our findings indicate that isolating families with young children are at-risk for recurring IPV during the pandemic, especially if they are also experiencing household crowding and/or severe income loss.
•Reviewed accuracy of children’s memory after parent-child discussions.•Parental bias associated with facilitative and misinformation effects.•Forensic implications and recommendations for forensic ...professionals provided.
Child maltreatment allegations often initially arise during informal conversations between children and a non-offending parent. Whether and how initial parent-child discussions influence the reliability of children’s subsequent forensic reports are critical contemporary questions regarding child witness testimony. In the current paper, we systematically reviewed the extant empirical literature regarding the effects of parent-child discussions on the accuracy of children’s subsequent event reports. PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science databases were searched for English-language, peer-reviewed papers that examined children’s (defined as participants 17-years-old or younger) reports after they discussed a target event with a parent. The systematic search yielded 23 eligible studies. To facilitate interpretation of the reviewed findings within the autobiographical memory and child witness literatures, our review is organized according to whether parents were naïve, knowledgeable, or misled prior to conversing with their children. We also report whether the studies demonstrated facilitative, misinformation, or non-significant effects of the parent-child discussion on the accuracy of children’s reports during a subsequent memory interview with a researcher. Consistent with the broader child memory literature, facilitative effects were often found among studies where children discussed the target event with a knowledgeable parent. In addition, misinformation effects were frequently observed among studies with misled parents. Limitations of the current studies, including generalizability of the observations to experiences on which children testify, and recommendations for future research and for forensic professionals are discussed.
•Examined preschoolers’ memory accuracy and suggestibility for emotional events.•Parent-child attachment security promoted memory accuracy.•Sensitive parental reminiscing was associated with security ...and children’s memory.•Sensitive reminiscing explained associations between attachment and memory.
There is considerable controversy regarding the accuracy and suggestibility of children’s autobiographical memory for emotionally salient life events. Attachment perspectives of autobiographical memory development identify the attachment security of parent–child dyads and parents’ emotional support and coherence during reminiscing with their children as critical mechanisms underlying children’s memory accuracy and suggestibility. In the current investigation, 72 preschool-aged children (M = 4.01 years, SD = 0.85; 44 female) reminisced with their parents about times they felt happy, sad, scared, and angry. Children were then independently interviewed about these experiences by an unfamiliar researcher using free recall, specific questions (i.e., questions about factual details), and misleading questions (i.e., questions suggesting false details). Parents completed an assessment of their children’s attachment security within the parent–child relationship. Results revealed significant indirect effects of parent–child attachment security on children’s memory accuracy through parental sensitive guidance during reminiscing when cognitive (i.e., intelligence) and behavioral (i.e., temperament, behavior problems) covariates were statistically controlled. Parent–child attachment security was positively associated with parental sensitive guidance during reminiscing, which, in turn, was positively associated with the accuracy of children’s independent reports. The findings support attachment perspectives of autobiographical memory by identifying emotionally sensitive and coherent reminiscing as a parenting behavior that explains in part associations between parent–child attachment security and children’s independent memory accuracy for emotional life events.
Forensic professionals frequently ask children to recount the occurrence and the content of allegation-relevant conversations during maltreatment investigations. However, little is known about ...children's conversation memory, especially after long delays that often characterize forensic investigations. Participants included 77 9-year-olds. When children were 8 years old, they participated in two to-be-remembered conversations: a target conversation and an initial interview regarding the target conversation. Memory for both conversations was examined 1 year later. After a year, children remembered the topic of the target conversation, but gist recall of statements was limited. Additionally, children demonstrated a yes-bias when answering yes/no questions about conversation statements. Virtually none of the children recalled participating in the initial interview. Our results suggest that after 1 year, children may remember the topic of seminal conversations, but memory for conversational statements may be sparse and unreliable. Furthermore, children may not recall engaging in peripheral conversations (such as interviews) after extended delays.
General Audience Summary
Children involved in maltreatment investigations discuss abuse with a variety of people in both formal and informal settings. Forensic interviewers and attorneys typically question children about prior conversations related to the maltreatment allegations. However, little is known about children's memory for conversations in which they actively participated, especially after long delays that often characterize forensic investigations. Seventy-seven children participated in two to-be-remembered conversations: a target conversation with a storyteller and an initial interview for the target conversation. Children's memory for both conversations was examined one year later during a follow-up interview. Children were eight years old when the conversations occurred, and nine years old during the 1-year follow-up interview. Following the 1-year delay, children accurately remembered the general topic of the target conversation, but they rarely remembered specific statements that were uttered. Virtually no children remembered talking to the initial interviewer. Additionally, when asked whether certain statements were said during the target conversation, children were inclined to agree that statements were said, even when they were not said during the target conversation. Our results suggest that after one year, children may remember the topic of seminal conversations, but memory for conversational statements may be sparse and unreliable. Furthermore, children may not recall engaging in peripheral conversations (such as interviews) after extended delays.
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