The Correlation of Adults of Childhood Abuse and their Inclination of

Abusing their own Children: An Approach for New Policy Adaptations.

Anthony Lawing

American Military University

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science in

Criminal Justice

April 01, 2012

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Abstract

This research proposal will explore and attempt to answer the correlation between adults that were abused as children and their propensity to abuse their own children. The problem statement will produce three research questions that will generate a predictive hypothesis that will be aided by secondary research in determining the causal link between the problem. The goal of this proposal is to obtain funding for this critical research.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

One of the prodigious epidemics in the United States of America and the World is the

prevalence of child abuse. With that fact, how often in an individuals daily life do they

experience or come across a child that has been maltreated. Of course a person may not be able

to answer the aforementioned question unless they are some sort of public servant that works

directly with victims of child abuse, or the person is an actual offender of child abuse, or the

person is the victim of child abuse. Nonetheless, child abuse is all around us every day; even if

we fail to recognize it visually. What exactly is child abuse? The U.S. Department of Health &

Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth

and Families Children’s Bureau defines child abuse as; any recent act or failure to act on the part

of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse

or exploitation; or an act or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.

(Retrieved Mar 01, 2012, from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm10/cm10.pdf ). That

definition is very profound of exactly the way child abuse should be interpreted; But what does

child abuse mean to an average person? Most would interpret it as the intentional harm of a child

in any shape, form or fashion. That is one of the first thoughts that comes into a person’s mind

without taking in account, what type of abuse the child may be a victim to, such as child sexual

abuse, psychological/ emotional abuse, physical abuse, neglect, and last but certainly not least

substance abuse.

According to the 2011 report for fiscal year 2010; the U.S. Department of Health & Human

Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and

Families Children’s Bureau, reported that 5.9 million children were referred to be involved in

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alleged child maltreatment (2011). A very astounding number, especially when talking about

innocent children and that is just in the United States alone. One child being abused is one to

many, but the ugly truth of the matter is it happens and is society doing enough to prevent it?

Prevention of child abuse is one thing, but what is society doing as a whole to understand why

these things are happening? What steps are we taking? What research are we studying? What

programs are we adopting and a million and one other questions that can be asked until we can

get to the root of the issue. In realization, there is not a solitary answer to this problem of child

abuse. Child abuse is a draconian epidemic and society must take on the enormous task of

preventing and deterring the issue of child abuse head on.

Ask any prudent person who ever watched the evening news and seen stories of child abuse

how disgusted they were of the allegations, yet ask the same person what have they done about

child abuse in their environment? A majority would respond that they have contributed nothing

to trying to prevent child abuse. It is not because they are powerless although some may feel this

way, or it is not because they are not educated although some may feel this way. Dialing

emergency dispatch when knowledge of child abuse is occurring is power, having knowledge

what child abuse is and when it is occurring is knowledge. Expecting a reasonable person to be

informed of these things is not the issue. The issues stems from society identifying the problem

and only expecting the professionals who receive compensation to solve the problem. In a

perfect world that would be great but if child abuse is prevalent than obviously there is no perfect

world. The professionals as well as the rest of society must all do their part to understand child

abuse and eradicate it from our communities.

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Statement of the Problem/ Purpose of the Study

The research that will be conducted if the proposal is approved, will be the analyzation of

how many victims of abuse or neglect as a child have the inclination to do the same to their

offsprings. There is reason to believe that victims of child abuse or neglect have substantial

mental, emotional, and physical traumas from the maltreatment. Even though the maltreatment

may cease at some point in the child's life; the child still matures and grows up to be an adult.

These victims of child abuse or neglect more often than not carries the stigmatization of being an

abused or neglected child, as well as the emotional and physical scars that comes along with it

their whole life.

The purpose of this research if approved will study the effects of adults that were victims of

child abuse or neglect and in return abuse or neglect their children as adults. This research will

also help understand what policies and programs the adult that was abused or neglected as a child

were exposed to and to determine which polices and programs were successful or failed to help.

This will in turn aid policy makers on what programs and policies to keep, what programs and

policies to eliminate and which policies and programs that can be adjusted to better tailor to

victims of child abuse and neglect needs. These determinations will cut cost by eliminating

unnecessary programs and streamline the funds to the actual programs that provide working

results.

The study will review the gender of the victim, the age of abuse and when it stopped, the type

of abuse or neglect, relationship of the abuser/abused, Socio Economic Status (SES) of the adult,

how many children, gender of the children, conviction of other crimes, drug abuser, and

employment history. These questions will give a paradigm of a measurement background which

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can aid the research and be as precise as possible to determine how best the research can provide

insight to a pattern of the problem and the help needed.

Research Questions

Research Question 1

Are adults that were maltreated as children more likely to maltreat their children?

Research Question 2

What programs and treatments were given to the adults as a maltreated child and

which ones helped (did not help)?

Research Question 3

What percentage of adults that received help from programs and treatments as a child grew

up to abuse their children and which ones did not?

Definitions

Child Abuse - Intentional harm of a child in any capacity.

Emotional Abuse - Abuse that is detrimental to psychological growth.

Physical Abuse - Trauma or injury caused by intentionally inflicting harm.

Neglect - failure to act as an adequate caregiver that results in exploitation or harm.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - A mental disorder associated with traumatic events

and displays symptoms of serious longitudinal psychological effects.

Productive Citizen - A person with the equal chance of succeeding and being a normal

person of society.

Social Economic Status (SES) - Sociological and economic measures against the totality of a

hierarchical social structure.

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Hypothesis

Adults that were abused or neglected as children unfortunately are exposed to irrevocable

circumstances. The massive weight of being abused as a child or neglected carries with them the

rest of their life no matter how normal of a life they would like to obtain. With that fact most

species are products of their environment, meaning they carry with them the influences and

cultures they were exposed to. Being maltreated as a child can do one of two things to an adult. It

can make them passionate advocates against child abuse and neglect or it can do the opposite

effect and make them perpetrators of child abuse and subject to maltreat children just as they

were maltreated as a child. This research will show that adults that were maltreated as a child has

the propensity to abuse or neglect their children as well.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

It is important to understand and distinguish what child abuse is and what are the different

types of maltreatment to a child. In this inference child abuse is as stated earlier the intentional

harm of a child in any shape, form or fashion. With that said a child can be abused in a variety of

ways such as mentally with emotion as a subset. A child can be abused physically with sexually

and assault and battery as subsets. A child can be abused with neglect, which can come in many

forms such as depriving a child of nutrition, proper nurturing, deprivation of education and

health to name a few. Also a child can be abused by forcing substance abuse upon them such as

drugs and alcohol, clearly at an age where they have no autonomy to make a rational decision on

whether it is the right or wrong thing to do and clearly would be detrimental to their health. Any

of the above maltreatment to a child is horrific and neither is no is worse than the other.

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Lets take a look at sexually abused children. A longitudinal study of sexually abusive

behavior in sexually victimized males concludes that it is estimated that child abuse is prevalent

in up to 37% in boys and up to 53% in girls (Salter, D., McMillan, D., Richards, M., & Talbot, T.,

2003). Those are significant numbers when thinking about of child abuse incidents being

reported, if all child abuse were reported think about how much more inflated that number would

become. The study says the ramifications of abuse for mental health later in life are substantial.

The teaching of child self protective skills are highly doubted and a more effective strategy

would be to identify persons at risk at becoming abusers and to target them for preventive

interventions (Salter. et el., 2003) There is nothing wrong with teaching children how to protect

themselves against abusive attacks, in fact every measure should be taken to exhaustion to

protect and prevent these acts from happening.

For the benefit of this proposal it is important to look at the preventive measures of stopping

these abusive acts from taking place. Recognizing abusive characteristics in the offender and

providing them with services they need to equip them not to become the perpetrators of abuse.

Salter et el. (2003) states that many professionals working with sexually abused children think

that perpetrators of abuse were indeed victims of abuse in childhood. Identifying childhood

victims at greatest risk of subsequently abusing children would allow therapeutic resources to be

directed more accurately. The study chronicled 224 male victims of abuse for a 7-19 year

duration. Age of referral were 10 and age of follow up were 21. The results of the study yielded

findings of 12 percent of the victims had become subsequent sexual abusers. The study does not

account for if the victims of abuse perpetrated other types of abuse. To put that in perspective, if

the results founded 12 percent of the childhood victims to commit sexual abuse, it would be a

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higher percentage if the study recorded any abuse towards children included in their study. For

purpose of conjecture add another 12 percent to factor in overall abuse and the number becomes

24 percent of subsequent abuse. The research of Sabitino (1999) found that between 30 percent

and 60 percent of adult sex offenders had been sexually abused as children. In Sabitino’s article

he says that; “If we include both physical and emotional abuse along with sexual abuse, then, in

all probability, a large majority of sex offenders were victims of childhood abuse” (Sabitino S.,

1999). The research being a longitudinal study of the victimized males also needed to account for

internal validities over time because the experiences outside of the childhood sexual abuse could

have accounted for contributing unforeseen activities that factored in to the abuse.

The latter study was for sexually abused males in childhood. There could be a similar

comparison between females, but the premise of the research proposal is not abuse specific, it is

any abuse towards a child period. Another longitudinal study of women who were sexually

abused during childhood researches the correlation between childhood abuse and adulthood

aggression. The 206 women studied had a mean age of 8.4 years of age when reported sexual

abuse as a child. The followup age of the study were 18 to 31. 44 percent of the women reported

having being in a physical altercation as an adult, 58 percent of those women used weapons 1

(Siegel, J. A., 2000). This study shows a strong causation of the dependent variable, almost half

of the women that were victims of childhood sexual abuse had shown signs of physical

aggression as an adult. The same constrictions on the longitudinal male study can be applied to

the women longitudinal study as far as the internal validity concerns. Other factors taken into

account should be what type of violence and the cause of the altercation such as self defense, that

The use of weapons indicate the acute seriousness of the altercation. 1

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can be figured in because that can certainly increase the outcome of the results, but not for the

reason the study intended. The environment perhaps plays one of the most significant factors of

both studies, especially as an adult. The women study in particular does not involve any

instances of child abuse from the women sexually abused in childhood, but the study does report

87 percent of the women having children, but it does not study rather they abused those children.

Even then one can almost with certainty assume that the children were exposed to the mothers

aggression towards others at some point, and if a separate question or study was taken on rather

the women who were childhood victims abused their children, the results would have probably

been similar to the male longitudinal study. The key factor is both studies show a trend of

ensuing abuse as an adult.

In a study about domestic violence associated with childhood exposure to violence, Murrell,

Christoff and Henning (2007) links children who are exposed to violence often display violent

behaviors as an adult, half of all men who abuse women also abuse the children who live in the

homes as well. That is direct evidence of adults maltreated as children grow up to continue the

cycle. To further solidify the prognosis the article reads, “Abused children seem to have

behavioral, emotional and social problems. Researchers commonly find that, as adults abused

children mature and display violence toward non-familiar others as well as toward their children”

(Murrell et el., 2007). The persistence of the issues that the abused children have to deal with

until adulthood and beyond is something that needs professional treatment to cope with their

entire lives, this is why the research proposed is imperative to create and maintain the right

programs that benefits and actually helps the victims of abuse, so the abuse will not be passed to

their offsprings.

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Psychological Effects

The most compelling observation of childhood maltreatment is the effects it has on the

abused persons mentally. Being abused as a child is a very traumatic experience. The mental

anguish, fear and instability has a pro-founding draconian effect on a humans mind. To put it in

perspective; American soldiers returning from active duty in the battle fields suffer from post

traumatic syndrome (PTSD) at an alarming rate. Well, even though a child never goes to war on

a battle field, they are at war with the people who is supposed to protect and care for them. A

soldier is an adult when he experiences post traumatic syndrome, a child has their childhood, the

rest of their adolescence and then adulthood, to suffer from this syndrome. That is an awfully

long time to carry the residuals of childhood maltreatment. A study by Horwitz, Widom,

Mclauughlin and White (2001), examines the impact of adult mental health on abused and

neglected children. The study used a control group of 510 to the experiment group of 641, the

experiment group cases were from county juvenile records and adult criminal courts from cases

involving substantial physical, sexual and neglect abuse from children under the age of eleven.

The control group were records of children enrolled in school with no abuse records on file, this

created a 74 percent match rate. The study was followed up approximately 20 years later for both

research groups. The research found significant differences between the control groups and the

maltreated for abused and neglected males. It showed that the experiment group reported more

anti-social behavior, and dysthymia than the control group but no difference in alcohol or

dependence. The female childhood victims reported more symptoms of all three: dysthymia,

anti-social behavior and alcohol or dependence.

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These prospective results indicate that victims of early childhood abuse and neglect

report worse mental health as adults compared to controls when documented cases of

childhood victimization are used. Also indicates that both men and women who were

victimized as children report more stressful life events than the control sample,

suggesting that early child abuse and neglect is part of a broader constellation of life

stressors (Horwitz et el., 2001, p. 189).

The report of more stressful life events is an interesting finding because it shows that the

childhood victims exposed to the internal validity of the study is strongly correlated with the

abuse. Convincingly suggesting the abuse help cause or led to the other unexpected stressful life

events i.e. internal validity issues.

In an older study that still has contemporary relevance by Cathy S. Widom, titled Post

Traumatic Stress Disorder in Abused and Neglected Children Grown Up (1999). She studied

child victims of maltreatment from 1967-1971 and followed them into early adulthood. 1,196 of

the research subjects were relocated and administered a two hour interview. The results of her

studied yielded that childhood maltreatment was associated with increased risk for lifetime and

current post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Each subset of abuse, sexual, physical and

neglect all were above 30 percent and met criteria for lifetime PTSD. The study also concluded

that lifestyle, family and the individual variables also place the individual at risk and contribute

to PTSD. These findings brings back full circle of the internal validity factors aforementioned

above, in reference to childhood victimization contributes to more stressful life events placed on

these variables, even though Widom’s study did not directly link them to PTSD.

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Abuse Treatment

Just as it is important to identify what other issues child abuse leads to, it is just as important

to identify the programs and treatments that are being used to treat the maltreated children as

children after the abuse and treated as adults following the childhood abuse. There has been an

abundance of research dedicated to the effectiveness of child abuse treatment programs with

PTSD being a major one. A follow up study researched by Stalker, Palmer, Wright and Gebotys

(2005) from the American Journal of Psychiatry, researched the effectiveness of inpatient trauma

treatment for adults maltreated as children. The research investigated the outcome at the

discharge of the treatment for adults abused as children after a 6 week treatment program for

traumatic stress recovery. The patients were assessed at admission, discharge and three, six, and

twelve months post discharge on measures of symptom severity, PTSD, and disrupted beliefs.

The study also used a control group of two wait list comparison groups, who were assessed at a

three month post discharge. The results of the study showed that the treatment group were

improved at discharge and at six to twelve months, compared to the wait list group the treatment

group were significantly improved at discharge. Between 32 percent and 45 percent met stringent

criteria for clinically significant change at twelve months post discharge. Although the adults

benefited from the specialized inpatient treatment, a substantial portion did not show clinically

significant change one year later. That latter statement about no significant change one year later,

is the most revealing part of the study. It shows that the programs and treatment in deed has a

good success rate but the treatment needs to be consistent and reoccurring to accurately help the

adults abused as children.

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Another study by Vickerman and Margolin (2007) that was conducted of children and

adolescents exposed to family violence that led to PTSD. The research was aimed at raising the

type of treatment questions. The treatment questions consisted of re-exposure interventions,

education about violence, cognitive restructuring, processing of emotional cues, social problem

solving skills, and parenting interventions. The research gave no definitive answer of what

treatment is the best, but rather raised questions of the usefulness of these treatments and how

best that they can be utilized in regards to the child's specific need. At some point probably all if

not all of those treatments will be needed to help facilitate the adult of child abuse to live a

productive life.

Perspective

An understated aspect of adults that were abused as children, is actually listening to what

they have to say. After all they are not just a statistic, but a complicated person with real thoughts

and feelings. If asked, they are the ones that can give researches a better understanding of what

they need to be productive citizens and overcome their childhood traumas of child abuse. A

qualitative study conducted labeled; “Listening to the Stories of Adults in Treatment Who were

Sexually Abused as Children” (Anderson K. and Hiesteiner C., 2007) addresses that issue. The

study examined the restoration and healing stories of 27 adult sexual abuse survivors. The study

used a group narrative approach, that explored the perspectives of individuals experiencing the

social problems directly. It was a voluntary convenience sample explicitly for adults sexually

abused as children. The results from the study generated three things of importance to the adults

that were sexually abused as children, creating a coherent life narrative, the importance of

turning points, and developing important connections. All three of those things can be supported

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by the treatment and programs implemented to help the adults that were abused. The current

policies for the treatment and programs needs to be catered to support and advocate those three

things that the victims of childhood abuse described. Those personal needs displays the

persuasion of qualitative study methods and gives researcher the 360 degree vision of analysis

rather than characterizing statistical findings of the victimization. “Results from this study

underscore the importance of grounding treatment and services in the words, style, content, and

form of participants stories, rather than shaping the stories to fit within a guiding theoretical

framework or preconceived service approach” (Anderson, K. and Hiersteiner, C., 2007). By

understanding what the victims of childhood maltreatment needs directly from their thought

process the policy for the programs and treatments can be implemented directly to their

vulnerabilities to keep them from continuing the cycle of abuse.

A comprehensive study of men facing their vulnerabilities after sexually offending, reports

that about half of the group had been sexually abused when young. “Most state that somewhere

between 30 percent and 60 percent of adult sex offenders had been sexually abused when they

were young (as cited by Sabatino C., 1999). The article explains that stresses tend to bring back

feelings that the victims has been trying to repress for years, especially if it is associated with the

abuse. This insert helps explain how someone who had been abused becomes the abuser:

John Money discusses what he refers to as the rubric of “opponent process” ...to explain

how a need to escape feelings of helplessness can contribute to a victim of abuse

becoming an offender. The individual who has been abused sees himself as having been

subjected to the control of another. He despises that position of vulnerability that had

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been imposed on him as a victim...He identified instead with the offender and looks to

reverse the roles (as cited in Sabatino C., 1999).

The latter statement can help to explain a lot for the mentality of childhood victims of abuse

and not only their processes, but also the program and treatments aimed to help the victims.

Uniform policies can be created to catalyze these findings and adjusted accordingly to every type

of aggregate for the treatment and the programs for the victims of childhood maltreatment.

Sabatino states that, group therapy (in conjunction with individual therapy) is believed a most

effective form of treatment precisely, because these victims so badly need to find ways to build

relationships of trust, acceptance, and openness in a safe setting. If these specific things are given

and implemented in the victimization treatments and programs then it could possibly decline

tremendously the potential of childhood victims of abuse from becoming offenders of children

abuse.

Lets take a look at services used by victims of child abuse, after all that is a very big part of

the prospective research proposal to figure out, how better policies can be formatted to provide

the right services for child victimization. Child victimization services are a crucial part in the

healing process of child abuse. Often, if a child gets removed from a home, services are the first

line of defense and refuge for the children, when and if they will succeed later as adults. A study

was executed in 2010 for service use by abused and neglected children followed up into

adulthood. The research was carried out by Yanos, P, Czaja, S., and Widom, C., and it consisted

of a cohort design of documented cases of physical, sexual abuse, and neglect (ages 0-10) and

non-victimized children matched with the experiment children. The children were later

interviewed with a mean age of 41. The past years service use including general medical, mental

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health, substance and social abuse. The results of the study concluded that individuals with

histories of childhood abuse and neglect were significantly more likely that the control group to

use mental health services and social services as adults. The study also goes on to say that

psychiatric status mediates and moderates these relationships. Internal validity always has to be

accounted for when involving longitudinal studies, simply because the individuals are going to

have external factors that contributes to their state of maturation, but how much of those

variables are caused because of the childhood victimization is the z variable that rarely gets

chronicled.

Bonomi, A., Anderson, M., Rivara, F., Cannon, E., Fishman, P., Carrell, D., Reid, R., and

Thompson, R., conducted a cohort study in 2008 that looks at health care cost associated with

childhood abuse. They examined longterm health care cost of 3,333 women from an integrated

health care delivery system. The study conducted a randomized telephone survey of the abused

women and the women without these abuse histories. The results came back as women with the

childhood victimization histories had a significantly higher annual health care use than women

without the abuse history. The most use and cost of healthcare services were with women who

experienced both physical and sexual abuse. Even though the study did not include men, these

findings are telling of the pattern already established from other studies. The need of specialized

services for the victims of child abuse to be methodically tailored and reoccurring through out

their different stages of life. Not only would that frame the cost of it to control a sufficient

budget, but it also would focus the victims of childhood abuse on the direct help they so badly

need based on retrospected prognostications from these studies.

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An authentic measurement of assessment for treatment and programs should come from the

practitioners that actually worked with the adults of childhood victimization. They are better

suited to lay out a blueprint for the right type of treatment that should be given. Great care should

be taken to ensure the childhood victim can procure a fair chance of becoming a productive

citizen like everyone else in society. Psychotherapy is a big part of the treatment for victims of

childhood abuse, that alone probably outweighs all other treatment for abuse, because the

stringent impact abuse has on an individual can easily be irreversible. Careful consideration

should be sought when treating for adults of childhood maltreatment:

We believe that psychotherapy for abuse survivors is embedded within a well-planned

treatment program...foundation for the treatment program should account for the

individuals personal development in interaction with the family, the social context, and

traumatic events. Comprehensive diagnostic and assessment procedures provide

important information for the formulation of a treatment plan and the competent

treatment of abuse and trauma (Enns C., Courtois, C., Lese, K., Campbell, J., Gottlieb,

M., Gilbert, M., and Forrest, L., 1998, p. 253).

It is understood that a researcher would have to account for the article being published in

1998 and there are new and innovative techniques being discovered everyday in the world of

psychotherapy, but the care taken in the deliverance of the treatment remains the same. The

article also accentuates that treatment is a reoccurring process as aforementioned earlier in the

proposal to fully help and develop the victims of childhood abuse; “Assessment should be

understood as a shared and ongoing experience between the practitioner and the client. The client

and the therapist work collaboratively to identify hypotheses about the nature and source of the

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clients problems” (Enns et el., 1998, p. 246). The same principle of “ongoing experience” can be

applied to all aspects of treatment and programs that adults of childhood victimization may need

from childhood to adulthood.

The next aspect of the proposal examines child abuse from the perspective of the victims as

adults. It is beyond importance to understand the mentality and the perseverance of the adults of

childhood abuse in order to really make decisions on polices and programs that will make a

difference. Candidly speaking, everyone wants to grow up to see a child succeed. That statement

is even more so when the child has insurmountable odds stacked against them, such as being

maltreated. Resilience, persevering, and tenacity are just some of the words one can think of for

a child that has overcome such malicious circumstances. An article titled, “Resilience Among

Abused and Neglected Children Grown Up” addresses the resilience factor of childhood victims

of abuse. The study by McGloin and Widom took subjects from 1967-1971 and did follow up

interviews between 1989-1995, included 1,196 participant, 636 were abused and 510 were

controls. The study defines resilience as “first a positive end of adaption in at risk samples,

second as a more complex three level definition. This more complex definition views resilience

as a good outcome in spite of high risk, sustains competence under stress, and recovery from

trauma” (as cited in Development and Psychopathology, 13, p. 1022). The study goes on to

breakdown the measures of the resilience constructs, which were employment, homelessness,

education, social activity, psychiatric disorder, substance abuse, and two measures of criminal

behavior: official arrest and self reports of violence. The results of this particular study produced

that 22 percent of abused and neglected children meet the criteria for resilience, more females

were successful than males. This data directly ties into the impact of treatment being tailored to

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meet specific needs. Almost a quarter of the percentage of the survey is a decent number but of

course it can be better. The purpose of this research proposal is to ascend those numbers in a

positive direction by giving the victims of child abuse the programs and treatment attention they

need to all be resilient. These results display that abused and neglected children function

remarkably well over life progression, but not without hiccups. In the 2001 publication McGloin

and Widom sums it up; “These results suggest that researchers, practitioners, and child welfare

workers should not assume the inevitability of problems in later development for victims of

childhood maltreatment” (p. 1035).

A recent study administered in 2011 by Harvard University looked at the resolve of women

maltreated as children raising their children without abuse. According to the study, cogent

empirical research estimates that parents of childhood victimization are twelve times more likely

to abuse or neglect their own children (as cited in Harvard Educational Review, 81, p. 24). With

that information which is exactly what this research will attempt to prove, using the victims of

childhood abuse as the base for the datum, the research can conclude and implement the correct

steps in treating the victims of child abuse going forth into the future. “Parents who were abused

as children and have raised their children without violence are a valuable resource for helping

practitioners and researchers understand best practices to support other ex-abused people,

prevention efforts can directly address the needs parents themselves identify” (Hall. S., 2011).

This was a qualitative study, with noteworthy limits. The study were interviews participated by

only women with a small sample size, that was never meant to be generalizable for external

validity. Also we can include that these women were more than likely in different stages of their

lives, which can influence the internal validity factors. There is a lot to be learned from studying

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formally abused children as adults and their parent strategies, because they have a vow and

determination not to continue the cycle of abuse.

The last thing in the review that this proposal will touch on is alcohol and substance abuse.

Both types of abuse has shown correlation that children that are exposed to maltreatment are at

increase risk as an adult for alcohol or substance abuse. A study specifically about women states

that; “The relationship between childhood victimization and adult alcohol abuse use various

types of samples found that women who had experienced childhood maltreatment were more

likely to have alcohol problems as an adult than other women” (Widom, S., Sturmhöfel, S., p. 56,

2001). This is not a telling revelation, based on the factors and issues child abuse leads to such as

anti-social behaviors and psychological problems, humans seek coping mechanisms such as

alcohol or drugs. Even though, it is not reviewed in this proposal, it would not be far fetched to

conjecture men suffer from the same issues as well as far as child victimization leading to

substance or alcohol abuse. Knowing this premise allows for policies and treatment programs to

implement assistance for these type of issues as well.

Chapter 3: Methodology

The research that will be conducted if the proposal is approved will be the analyzation of

how many victims of abuse or neglect as a child have the inclination to do the same to their

offsprings. It is common awareness that many studies have been administered to address this

issue. This proposal brings awareness to the cyclical aspect of it. The research questions are: Are

adults that were maltreated as children more likely to maltreat their children? What programs and

treatments were given to the adults as a maltreated child and which ones helped (did not help)?

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What percentage of adults that received help from programs and treatments as a child grew up to

abuse their children and which ones did not?

Theoretical Framework

An intensive effort of empirical research has been dedicated to the topic of child abuse. There

is a plethora of primary and secondary analysis that the researchers of this proposal can exhaust

to solidify the hypothesis. The data is unquestionably there to correlate adults victimized as

children grow up also to abuse their children. Do to the scope of the study and to validate the

hypothesis, the research will use the quantitative method. This is to ensure the study has tangible

proof to back its claim that policies can and should be tailored to fit the needs of the abused

children, and continued well into adulthood from necessity.

Research Strategy

This project will be an explanatory study with a quasi-experimental design. It will examine a

causal relationship between childhood victimization, the independent variable and adult child

abuse offenses by adults that were abused, the dependent variable. The random sampling

technique in a population would significantly fall short of random assignment for the findings of

the proposal. Therefore it would be in the studies best interest to do a matching , clinical study of 2

adults in a child abuse program. After seeking and receiving permission from the executives and

managers of the program, the design will call for randomly selecting adults that were mandated

by state courts to attend treatment programs for abusing their children as part of their sentence

rehabilitation. We will use a pod of 3 different treatment programs. Pending how many adults are

enrolled in the actual program, we will get a sum of the elements and assign systematic sampling

Comparison Group - nonequivalence of groups.2

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for every Nth number of subjects. The project itself should satisfy any “Periodicity” bias given 3

the fact it is not abuse specific, it will accumulate subjects from all forms of abuse. The study

will then match the experimental group, with a comparison group, derived from using law

enforcement software that entails criminal background information. We will randomly select

subjects using the same systematic sampling based on having a criminal background, non-

criminal background, history of abusing children and non-history of abusing children based on

the same age, gender, race, and SES of the experimental group, that shows no record of treatment

or programs mandated by court order. After completing the sample technique to satisfaction, the

experimental group and the comparison group will be administered a survey questionnaire . The 4

survey will consist of 38 questions that will provide all the information needed to determine if

the formally abused adults as children, at some point abused their offsprings. The

instrumentation will be carefully worded as non-threatening but succinct, and only distributed by

the program staff for the experimental group that will relieve any pressures or uncomfortably for

the subjects of being given a survey by complete strangers. The matching group will be

distributed the survey by the research staff over the telephone. This method gives all subjects a

chance of responding that were selected in the matching group. This method for the matching

group also depicts a professional appearance and will more than likely garner a response if the

questions asked by the respondents can get answers articulated by the research staff. The

researchers will specify a disclaimer that none of the information received will be exposed to the

public and in no way in any form will the subject be charged with a crime or prosecuted on any

Periodicity - periodic arrangement of elements.3

See appendix A.4

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information received due to the survey, and the answers given are for research purposes only. We

will then tally the results and analyze our findings.

Data Analysis

For this descriptive research the researchers will use bivariate tables to construct the data.

The tables will describe a general association between the two variables. To further infer the

findings a regression analyses of Y= f(X) will be used to determine a mathematical description

between the variables. The graph of X and Y will also paint a picture of confidence levels of the

study. When tabulating all of the data, of course we will expect to find a direct casual

relationship between the two variables, as a number of doctoral studies have already provided the

same conclusion. We also predict we will find that the subjects that received treatment and

program assistance were able to live a normal life more than those who never received it or

received limited assistance. We also expect to find that the more treatment that the subjects

received addressing all of their issues of childhood victimization, the less likely they abused their

children in return.

Internal/External Validity

The proposed study will account for internal validity, given the fact that the formally

victimized adults have progressed into different life stages. There is no measurement or gauge

that quantifies natural progression of human subjects but the study will take into consideration

the extracurricular variables that shapes a persons state of being and their environment. The

study also has to keep in account the trauma of being a childhood victim of abuse strongly

deviates the mentality of a person of what society would consider normal. The survey itself aims

to keep the information direct and to the point to help combat the internal validity factor.

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External validity will not be utilized given the study is for a specific population that were

exposed to a specific variable, also the purpose of the study is to help shape policies specifically

for these individuals that would otherwise have nothing to do with the general population.

Timeline

Given the sensitive nature of the study and the search and scope of accruing willing

participants, the research would like the maximum allowable time allocated to be three years.

Two years will be dedicated to tracking the project participants and administering the survey, and

one year will be needed to tabulate the data and analyze the findings.

Conclusion

This proposed research is imperative to the cause of child abuse. So much time and resources

have been committed to the dilemma with no real answer to solve the issue, only data tabulation

and frequencies. This research will be a hand over hand supplement to policy shaping that gives

the formally abused adults the assistance and help they may need to be productive citizens and

break the cycle of child abuse. Its purpose is to be more than an amendment to a policy that

shows good faith in public officials, this research will provide real answers to the problem of

child abuse. Although it is a quantitative method and most of the research can be accumulated

from secondary data, that method of data collection will grossly undermine the idealistic problem

and answer to tailoring the policy to precisely represent what the childhood victims of abuse

explicitly needs to function as a normal person and break the perpetual cycle of child abuse.

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References

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