Review of professional opinions in the literature reveals that (a) the abusing parent was himself raised with some degree of deprivation; (b) the abusing parent brings to his role as parent mistaken notions of child rearing; (c) there is present in the parent a general defect in character structure allowing aggressive impulses to be expressed too freely; and (d) while socioeconomic factors might sometimes place added stresses on basic personality weakness, these stresses are not of themselves sufficient or necessary causes of abuse. A critique is made of a recent demographic survey in light of the foregoing data.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract