Abstract
Previous studies mostly explored the characteristics of mothers who showed tendency towards violence against children. However, there was a lack of research regarding the characteristics of abusive fathers. The aim of this study was to test the effects of fathers’ personality traits and frequency of negative life events, as well as their interaction on violence against children. The study was conducted on a sample of 259 fathers from the general population from Serbia. Results showed that higher Aggressiveness and more presence of negative life events contributed to the prediction of violence against children. Furthermore, the interaction between Neuroticism and negative life events was also significant, showing that fathers with lower Neuroticism and more negative life events were more prone to violence against children. The results of this study confirm that personality traits could be important determinants of violent behavior toward children, but also add to the conclusion that some of them should be considered in the context of negative situational factors.
Highlights
Conflicts between parents and young children may take serious consequences and result in violence against children
Given the potentially complex role of the negative life events, this study aims to identify specific patterns of interactions between the father’s personality traits and negative life events that contribute to the violence against children
Frequency analysis showed that no father reported that he used a form of violence several times per week
Summary
Conflicts between parents and young children may take serious consequences and result in violence against children. Results of several meta–analytic studies in the USA and Europe have shown that 7–20% of children experience some form of maltreatment in a family context (e.g., Barth, Bermetz, Heim, Trelle, & Tonia, 2013; Stoltenborgh, Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, & Alink, 2013). In Serbia, results show that 30–45% of all the victims of the family violence are children who have experienced some form of emotional or physical violence in their family before the age of 14 (Ignjatović, 2015; UNICEF, 2014, 2017, 2019). Due to very high prevalence of experienced violence, it is very important to identify the dispositional and situational factors which contribute to the parents’ violence against their children. The usual predictors of the occurrence of violence against children are related to the dispositional characteristics of the parents. Tendencies toward loneliness and isolation, impulsivity, becoming upset and angry, the fear of being controlled (Black, Heyman, & Slep, 2001), hostile attributions about infant’s intentions signal (Berlin, Dodge, & Reznick, 2013), higher depression and anxiety, lack of empathy to children’s needs (Mennen & Trickett, 2011), as well as lower self–worth in family relationships (Christensen et al, 1994) have been the risk factors of a child maltreatment by mothers
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