sks for the child.
The perpetrators of child abuse in the United States are typically (50 percent) those adults who are closest to the child (Kaplan & Sadock, 1991, p. 327). In approximately 30 percent of the cases, the abuser is the mother, while the father is the abuser in about 20 percent of the cases, and the remaining 50 percent of cases of abuse are perpetrated by a variety of persons, such as baby-sitters, boy friends or live-in lovers of the mother, and so forth. Hispanic children, more so than either Anglo or African-American children, are likely to be abused by an extended family member (Huston, Parra, Prihoda, & Foulds, 1995, p. 167).
Approximately 50 percent of child abuse cases occur in households receiving public assistance, while the remaining 50 percent occur in higher income households (Kaplan & Sadock, p. 327). As African-Americans are disproportionately represented in the lower socioeconomic groups in the American population, this statistic is relevant to this examination of mental illness among African-Americans. Unfortunately, no causal relationship has been established between the variables ethnicity and socioeconomic status in relation to the prevalence of child abuse. What is known is that the proportion of African-American child abuse victims is higher than the proportion of African-Americans in the total population.
Psychiatrically, abusers of children are typically unstable, immature, characterized by poor impulse control, and, in many instances, psychotic (Kaplan & Sadock, pp. 328-329). The preponderance of child abuse cases involve children three-years old or younger, although a substantial number of cases also involve older children. Abused African-American children tend to be younger than abused children generally.
The presence of alcohol abuse within family units creates further difficulties for children in the household. Such children often are required to deal with sexual, physical, ...