This study was an initial effort to use social network concepts to compare the informal support systems of mothers identified as child abusers with those of non-abusing mothers. A social-psychological approach was taken to the measurement of social network strength. The strength of the mother's primary group network was defined in terms of the mothers' reported perceptions of the amount of role-supportive help available to her from neighbors, friends, and relatives. / The data were collected by means of structured interviews with two groups of mothers. A group of 38 mothers were interviewed who had been identified as physical child abusers by one of eight public protective services programs in North Florida and North Georgia. A control group of 59 mothers who had not been reported for child abuse were similarly identiviewed. / A structured, 51 item Index of Social Network Strength, was developed by the author and used as the interview guide. The instrument contained 28 Likert-type items which yielded a summated index of the mother's perceived strength of her combined neighbor-friend network and an index of the perceived strength of her kinship network. The total of the combined scores was the measure of the mother's perceived strength of her total primary group network. The data collection instrument also provided demographic characteristics of the mothers, a measure of their use of formally organized parent-support services, a marital satisfaction index, and an index of situational stress. / An inverse relationship was hypothesized to exist between mothers' perceived strength of their primary group networks and maternal child abuse. This inverse relationship between mothers' perceived strength of primary group network and maternal child abuse was hypothesized to be stronger for mothers in high stress situations than for mothers in low stress situations, and stronger for mothers who reported low use of formally organized parent-support services than for mothers who reported high use of the service. The fourth hypothesis postulated that the inverse relationship between mothers' perceived strength of their kinship network and maternal child abuse would be greater than the inverse relationship between the mothers' perceived strength of their neighbor-friend networks and maternal child abuse. / The data were analyzed by means of contingency tables and non-parametric statistics. Chi-square was used as a measure of statistical significance and Yule's Q was used as a measure of the strength of association between the variables. / The findings supported the major research hypothesis. Mothers who perceived their primary group networks as strong were significantly less likely to be child abusers than mothers who perceived their primary group networks as weak. This inverse relationship between the mothers' perceived strength of their primary group networks and child abuse was significantly stronger for mothers who did not utilize formally organized parent-support services than for mothers who did utilize them, and was stronger for lower-income mothers than for higher-income mothers. Level of situational stress did not significantly influence the inverse relationship between mothers' perceived strength of their networks and child abuse. The perceived strength of the mother's neighbor-friend networks was found to have a stronger, negative association with child abuse than did the perceived strength of their kinship networks. / The findings suggest that interventions to prevent maternal child abuse should be directed toward strengthening the social linkages between abusive or potentially abusive mothers and their neighbors and friends. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-02, Section: A, page: 0806. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74089 |
| Contributors | GAUDIN, JAMES MARTIN, JR., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 194 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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