Trickett Penelope K, Mennen Ferol E, Kim Kihyun, Sang Jina
University of Southern California, School of Social Work, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0411, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 2009 Jan;33(1):27-35. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2008.12.003. Epub 2009 Jan 29.
The main purpose of this paper is to use the Brassard and Donovan [Brassard, M. R. & Donovan, K. L. (2006). Defining psychological maltreatment. In M. M. Freerick, J. F. Knutson, P. K. Trickett, & S. M. Flanzer (Eds.), Child abuse and neglect: Definitions, classifications, and a framework for research (pp. 151-197). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookers Publishing Co., Inc.] framework to examine and describe the nature of emotional abuse experienced by a sample of urban, ethnically diverse male and female youth (N=303) identified as maltreated by a very large public child welfare agency.
Case record abstraction was conducted on the DCFS records of these maltreated youth using the Maltreatment Case Record Abstraction Instrument (MCRAI) which was based on the work of Barnett et al. [Barnett, D., Manly, J. T., & Cicchetti, D. (1993). Defining child maltreatment: The interface between policy and research. In D. Cicchetti & S. L. Toth (Eds.), Advances in applied developmental psychology: Child abuse, child development and social policy (pp. 7-73). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp.] as modified by English and LONGSCAN [English, D. J., & the LONGSCAN Investigators. (1997). Modified maltreatment classification system (MMCS). Retrieved from http://www.iprc.unc.edu/longscan/]. Fifteen items of parental behavior deemed emotionally abusive were coded and organized into four subtypes of emotional abuse (spurning, terrorizing, isolating, exploiting/corrupting) using the Brassard and Donovan (2006) framework.
Using this coding system, almost 50% of the sample were found to have experienced emotional abuse in contrast to 9% identified at the time of referral by DCFS. Most of the emotionally abused youth also experienced physical abuse (63%) and/or neglect (76%) as well. The most frequent subtype of emotional abuse experienced was terrorizing. Most youth experienced more than one subtype.
Emotional abuse, while frequent, was seldom the focus of the child protection services investigation. The nature of this abuse was not minor, but rather likely to be dangerous to the mental health and well-being of these children. Further more emotional abuse, in this sample of young adolescents, at least, was likely to be accompanied by other forms of maltreatment, especially physical abuse and/or neglect. These findings have important implications for practice and the direction of future research.
All those who interact with child welfare clients must recognize the prevalence of emotional abuse in maltreated children so that appropriate interventions are instituted. Screening for emotional abuse should be part of all intake referrals and when confirmed should be noted in official records. When children are placed, foster parents (both kin and non-kin) need training on the prevalence and consequences of emotional abuse, and strategies to help their foster children recover from the aftermath. When children remain with maltreating parents, emotional abuse should be a focus of the interventions designed to help maltreating parents with more effective parenting strategies and also should be a focus of the interventions designed to help the child recover from the consequences of maltreatment.
本文的主要目的是运用布拉萨德和多诺万[布拉萨德，M. R. & 多诺万，K. L.（2006年）。界定心理虐待。载于M. M. 弗雷里克、J. F. 克努森、P. K. 特里克特和S. M. 弗兰泽（编），《虐待和忽视儿童：定义、分类及研究框架》（第151 - 197页）。马里兰州巴尔的摩：保罗·H. 布鲁克斯出版公司]的框架，来审视和描述一个由某大型公共儿童福利机构认定为受虐的城市中不同种族的青少年男女样本（N = 303）所经历的情感虐待的本质。
使用基于巴尼特等人[巴尼特，D.、曼利，J. T. & 西契迪，D.（1993年）。界定虐待儿童：政策与研究的交汇点。载于D. 西契迪和S. L. 托斯（编），《应用发展心理学进展：虐待儿童、儿童发展与社会政策》（第7 - 73页）。新泽西州诺伍德：阿布雷克斯出版公司]的研究成果并经英格利希和LONGSCAN[英格利希，D. J. & LONGSCAN研究人员。（1997年）。修订后的虐待分类系统（MMCS）。取自http://www.iprc.unc.edu/longscan/]修改的《虐待案例记录提取工具》（MCRAI），对这些受虐青少年的儿童保护服务部（DCFS）记录进行案例记录提取。依据布拉萨德和多诺万（2006年）的框架，对被视为情感虐待的15项父母行为进行编码，并将其组织为情感虐待的四种亚型（排斥、恐吓、孤立、剥削/腐蚀）。
运用此编码系统发现，近50%的样本曾经历情感虐待，相比之下，DCFS在转介时认定的比例为9%。大多数受情感虐待的青少年还同时遭受了身体虐待（63%）和/或忽视（76%）。最常经历的情感虐待亚型是恐吓。大多数青少年经历了不止一种亚型。
情感虐待虽然常见，但很少成为儿童保护服务调查的重点。这种虐待的性质并非轻微，而是很可能对这些儿童的心理健康和幸福构成危险。此外，至少在这个青少年样本中，情感虐待很可能伴有其他形式的虐待，尤其是身体虐待和/或忽视。这些发现对实践和未来研究的方向具有重要意义。
所有与儿童福利服务对象打交道的人都必须认识到情感虐待在受虐儿童中普遍存在，以便实施适当的干预措施。对情感虐待的筛查应成为所有收容转介工作的一部分，一旦确认，应记录在官方档案中。当儿童被安置时，寄养父母（包括亲属和非亲属）需要接受关于情感虐待的普遍性、后果以及帮助寄养儿童从创伤中恢复的策略的培训。当儿童继续与虐待他们的父母生活在一起时，情感虐待应成为旨在帮助虐待父母采用更有效育儿策略的干预措施的重点，也应成为旨在帮助儿童从虐待后果中恢复的干预措施的重点。
