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Partner Physical Aggression and Risk for Physical Child Abuse
Author(s) -
O'Leary K. Daniel,
Jouriles Ernest N.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
family court review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.171
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1744-1617
pISSN - 1531-2445
DOI - 10.1111/fcre.12541
Subject(s) - aggression , physical abuse , psychology , child abuse , domestic violence , poison control , suicide prevention , clinical psychology , psychiatry , developmental psychology , medicine , medical emergency
Two randomly drawn samples of mothers and fathers of young children in New York and Texas were assessed for both partner physical aggression and physical child abuse. Overall, both minor and severe physical aggression against a partner were associated with an increased likelihood of physical child abuse. However, even for severe aggression in these randomly drawn community samples, the likelihood of child abuse given partner abuse was less than 25%. These rates were significantly lower than those in battered women samples. Our findings have clinical and policy implications for professionals charged with determining child safety in custody and parenting time matters.