e. MYTH:
Parents who abuse their children are crazy people who have
serious mental illnesses.
FACT:
Studies indicate that less than one in ten abusing parents is
mentally ill.
f. MYTH:
Abusing parents do not change. Once an abusing parent, always
an abusing parent.
FACT:
Studies indicate that four out of five abusing parents can learn new
ways of dealing with their children and can stop abusing the
children.
g. MYTH:
The abusive parent is more likely to be the father.
FACT:
According to research, mothers are more likely to abuse their
children, and sons are more likely to be abused.
h. MYTH:
Only poor people abuse their children. Poor people especially beat
their children.
FACT:
Child abuse takes place in all segments of American society
regardless of the parents' wealth, education, race, ethnic heritage,
or religious faith.
i. MYTH:
Since abused children know what it is like to be hurt by a parent,
these children rarely abuse their own children when they become
parents.
FACT:
Unfortunately, just the opposite is true. It is estimated that from one
out of two to nine out of ten abused children become abusing
parents. The abused child learns from his parents and brings his
family's habits with him when he has children of his own.
4-4.
PROFILE OF THE ABUSED CHILD
Parents or others who care for the child are the abusers in more than 80 percent
of the cases of neglect and abuse which result in physical or developmental trauma. As
mentioned before, parents themselves are most often the ones who have abused a
child. Social scientists are not really sure why parents in some circumstances abuse
their children while other parents in the same circumstances do not resort to child
abuse. Recent studies reveal these findings about the abused child, the abusive
parent, and the family unit itself.
MD0584
4-5