1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The purpose of this study was to describe an overall and well-defined profile of the personality traits of parents who had been formally accused of physical abuse or neglect in comparison to a control group of parents.» (p. 24)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
16 parents accused of physical abuse, 24 parents accused of neglect, and 18 parents for the control group. All participants came from Mauricie or Centre-du-Québec regions.

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

Authors state that «[r]esults showed that physically abusive and neglectful parents showed significantly higher trends than the control group for personality disorders on each of the three clusters and certain clinical syndromes. No significant differences were identified between the physically abusive group and neglectful group, regardless of the personality disorder or clinical syndrome. […] These results raise the question of developmental origins in the acquisition of personality disorders, since no individual selected in the sample reported cranio-cerebral trauma or neurological disorders of any kind. […] The hereditary, educational, and gene-environment interaction factors represent the most interesting sources of investigation in the field. For example, in our sample 64% of the neglectful group and 63% of the physically abusive group reported at least one form of abuse during their childhood; this leads us to believe that a childhood marked by abuse or neglect on the part of a parent could result in personality disorders (Bierer et al. 2003; Johnson et al. 1999) and that these disorders may have something to do with the intergenerational transmission of abuse. Future research in this area is necessary.» (p. 29)