rs children to use violence as a method of conflict resolution.
Scharer (1979) also reports that people become abusers through learning parenting skills from dysfunctional role models. Typically, the pattern involves parents setting unrealistic goals for the children and then, when youngsters necessarily fail to reach these goals, responding to this failure with demeaning criticism, denial of affection and, sometimes, even physical punishment.
Specifically, Scharer (1979) states that abusers are often children who are told how to act, what to do, and how to feel--a parenting response that discourages the development of autonomy, problem-solving skills, and creativity. As a result of this behavior, these children grow up feeling unloved and worthless. In an effort to protect themselves from these feelings, children grow hostile and distrustfulness of others. This manifests itself, in the adult abuser, as a low threshold for frustration as well as overly aggressive responses to minimal provocation. There is also great emotional instability.
Because of their childhood upbringing and dysfunctional role models, and the insecurities bred by these factors, by adulthood abusers feel very needy. They then attempt to get their wives to meet these deep needs and react with resentment when they are not met. For their children, they set up these unrealistic goals, thereby creating the whole cycle of abuse once again.
Goldberg and Tomalanovich (1984) also report that background factors such as those just listed and the deep sense of need which they create cause most abusers to be very possessive and jealous, always monitoring the comings and goings of their wives and accusing them of infidelities. Further, the authors report that while it may not "cause" the violence, substance abuse is a contributive factor in the vast majority of cases of battering.
Problem Summary. Based on the foregoing, it can be said that the probl...