Physical abuse

Physical abuse is any intentional act causing

A number of causes of physical abuse against children have been identified, the most common of which, according to Mash and Wolfe, being:^[3]

• many abusive and neglectful parents have had little exposure to positive parental models and supports.^{[citation needed]}
• there is often a greater degree of stress in the family environment.^{[citation needed]}
• information-processing disturbances may cause maltreating parents to misperceive or mislabel their child's behavior, which leads to inappropriate responses.^{[citation needed]}
• there is often a lack of awareness or understanding of developmentally appropriate expectations.^{[citation needed]}

Effects

Physically abused children are at risk for later interpersonal problems involving aggressive behavior, and adolescents are at a much greater risk for

Researchers have pointed to other potential psycho-biological effects of child physical abuse on parenting, when abused children become adults. These recent findings may, at least in part, be carried forward by epigenetic changes that impact the regulation of stress physiology.[5]

Treatment

Evidence-based interventions for physical abuse include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as well as video-feedback interventions and child-parent psychodynamic psychotherapy; all of which specifically target anger patterns and distorted beliefs, and offer training and/or reflection, support, and modelling that focuses on parenting skills and expectations, as well as increasing empathy for the child by supporting the parent's taking the child's perspective.^[6][7][8]

These forms of treatment may include training in social competence and management of daily demands in an effort to decrease parental stress, which is a known risk factor for physical abuse. Although these treatment and prevention strategies are to help children and parents of children who have been abused, some of these methods can also be applied to adults who have physically abused.^[3]

Other animals

Physical abuse has also been observed among

References