Conflict in Families Chiefly to Blame.

• Position: Causes of child abuse - Brief Article

Personal stress, marital dissatisfaction, and lack of activities outside the family are contributing factors to conflict in families where child abuse has occurred, according to a study by Francesca Adler-Baeder, a Ph.D. candidate at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. "The vast majority of physical child abuse starts out as discipline or a conflict between parent and child that went too far.... All three of these factors were present in families where child abuse has taken place. They appear to be very strong predictors, whether the abuse is done by a biological mother or father or a stepfather."

Personal stress was the factor that contributed the most to producing conflict in abusive biological mothers, but it was also significant for biological fathers. Parents and stepfathers in highly conflicted families experienced high levels of personal stress from sources both inside and outside the family.

Low levels of marital satisfaction most affected abusive biological fathers and were highly predictive of family conflict in all three...