The relative importance of wife abuse as a risk factor for violence against children

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relative importance of wife abuse as a risk factor for physical child abuse, physical punishment, and verbal child abuse. The study explored the importance of wife abuse relative to blocks of parent, child, and family characteristics and also relative to specific risk factors. Method: This study re-analyzed a sub-sample ( N = 2,733) of data from the 1985 National Family Violence Survey. Hierarchical logistic regressions were conducted, using five different criterion variables measuring physical child abuse, physical punishment, and verbal abuse separately and in combination. Results: Blocks of parent, child, and family characteristics were more important predictors of violence towards children than was wife abuse, though the presence of wife abuse in the home was a consistently significant specific risk factor for all forms of violence against children. Of specific risk factors, a respondent’s history of having been hit as an adolescent was a larger risk factor for physical child abuse than was wife abuse. Wife abuse was an important predictor of physical punishment. Non-violent marital discord was a greater factor in predicting likelihood of verbal child abuse than was wife abuse. Conclusions: Though this study confirms the association between wife abuse and violence towards children, it cautions us not to overlook the contribution of other factors in our attempts to understand the increased risk attributed to wife abuse.