Responses of Physically Abused and Nonabused Children to Different Forms of Interadult Anger

Abstract

Responses to various forms of interadult anger were examined in 2 groups of 6-11-year-olds: 44 low-SES children with a history of physical abuse and exposure to interspousal aggression, and 44 low-SES children exposed to interspousal aggression but with no history of physical abuse or other child maltreatment. Children were presented with videotaped segments of adults in angry and friendly interactions. Angry segments varied on (a) the type of anger expression (nonverbal, verbal, verbal-physical), and (b) whether anger was resolved. In general, physically abused children reported greater fear than nonabused children in response to all forms of interadult anger. Moreover, abused children appeared particularly sensitive to whether anger between adults was resolved. Findings are discussed with regard to factors that may mediate relations between exposure to family violence and the development of psychopathology in children from highly aggressive home environments.

Emotion regulation and understanding: implications for child psychopathology and therapy

“…They also reported that certain childrearing practices appear to contributed to later outcomes, both as risk (e.g., inconsistency and overprotectiveness) and protective (e.g., providing structure during play and rational guidance of child behavior). Marital discord also influences the development of child emotion regulation, particularly if child abuse is occurring concurrently (e.g., Gottman & Katz, 1989;Hennessy, Rabideau, Cicchetti, & Cummings, 1994). For example, Gottman and Katz (1989) examined family, parental, and child-peer interactions along with several physio-logical indices of emotion processes (e.g., stress and emotion regulation) in families with varying levels of marital distress.…”

“…The possible roles that emotion understanding and emotion regulation play in the development of psychopathology are suggested by a variety of research findings (e.g., Casey, 1996;Cole, Zahn-Waxler, et al, 1994;Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, et al, 1996;Gottman & Katz, 1989;Hennessy et al, 1994;Seja & Russ, 1999;Southam-Gerow & Kendall, 2000;Zahn-Waxler, Iannotti, et al, 1990). In this final section, we consider how the emotion research we have reviewed impacts clinical research.…”

Children's responding to live interadult conflict: The role of form of anger expression

“…The dependent variables for verbal responses were ratings on 5-point scales for (a) how angry the arguing adults were perceived to feel, and (b) children's own feelings of anger, sadness, and fear (e.g., Hennessy et al, 1994). Ratings of the selected emotion were entered in analyses (either zero if the emotion was not reported, or the reported intensity of the emotion selected by the child).…”

Symptoms and long‐term outcomes for children who have been sexually assaulted

“…They may misinterpret social interactions as negative and aggressive when, in fact, they are not (Hennessy, Rabideau, & Cicchetti, 1994). At times, they might become dispropor-tionately emotionally upset and distressed when they see others in conflict, and can show exaggerated reactions to these situations.…”