Child Maltreatment & Abuse Study

Each day in this country, parents are responsible for the deaths of one or two children. The number of children under 5 killed each year by their own parents may be greater than the number of those who die from disease. An estimated 500,000 children are beatened, burned, thrown, kicked, and battered without losing their lives. (p.252)

One important research question regarding childhood maltreatment has been whether or not it is increasing. Gelles and Straus (1987), in a comparison of studies of violence toward children conducted in both 1975 and 1985, found that statistics, covering a total sample size of 2,574 families, evidenced an extremely high rate of severe violence. However, the rate of severe violence was actually lower in 1985 than in 1975. Gelles and Straus provided several reasons for the findings. These included the possibilities of: (1) increased reluctance to report; (2) differences in methodologies; (3) ten years of effective treatment and prevention programs; and (4) the effects of changes in American society and family patterns producing lower rates of violence toward children even without ameliorative programs.

In terms of childhood maltreatment in relation to race and class differences, Hampton (1987) analyzed statistical data from a national study of child abuse and neglect. The analyzed data included 4,170 cases of abuse of which 77 percent involved White families, 15

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ted to have good reliability and validity. Similar findings have been reported by Wittenborn (1984). Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire The Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (Stockwell, Murphy & Hodgson, 1983) is a 20 item self-report instrument which evaluates a recent month of alcohol use by the respondent along five dimensions: physical withdrawal symptoms, affective symptoms, withdrawal relief drinking, quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, and rapidity of reinstatement of withdrawal symptoms following a period of abstinence. Test-takers respond to each item on a four point scale which provides a global index of symptoms. Intensity of dependence on alcohol increases with numerical score; the maximum total score is 60. In a comprehensive study of both the validity and reliability of the instrument, Stockwell, Murphy and Hodgson (1983) stated: In summary, the results reported here provide evidence that the 20 item Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire has a very high degree of test-retest reliability. In addition, there is good evidence of construct validity and, despite many uncontrolled variables, also of concurrent validity in so far as SADQ scores correlate with indices of withdrawal
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Some common words found in the essay are:
INVENTORY Sadness, Recommendations Based, Stock James, Gelles Straus, Based Seligman's, Mean SD, Maltreatment Questionnaire, Dependence Questionnaire, BDI SADQ, Friedrich Einbender, childhood maltreatment, alcohol dependence, severity alcohol, severity alcohol dependence, physical childhood maltreatment, physical childhood, male alcoholics, beck depression inventory, beck depression, level childhood, depression inventory, physically abused, level childhood maltreatment, learned helplessness, alcohol dependence questionnaire,
Approximate Word count = 7566
Approximate Pages = 30 (250 words per page)

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