Abstract
Child abuse has generally been recognized only in its more obvious physical manifestations. The possibility of less obvious though serious forms of abuse is considered by offering a more expansive definition of child abuse, which includes a category that the investigators term “covert abuse.” The question is raised as to whether or not these more subtle forms of abuse result in a negative developmental outcome in the child. To answer this question, the investigators hypothesized that in the histories of young adult drug abusers, a high incidence of covert abuse would be found. To test this hypothesis, a self-report questionnaire was designed and administered to the 57 male and female residents (mean age of 20.2 years) in two facilities of a nationally based drug treatment program in the United States. As expected, it was found that the population reported a consistently high incidence of family disruption during childhood. A statistically significant relationship was demonstrated between hard-core drug abuse in the subjects and a lack of parental demonstrativeness toward each other. Results of the study suggest that overt forms of abuse are not the only types of abuse that may be developmentally destructive to a child; covert forms of abuse are possible contributors to a negative developmental outcome as well.
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This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (N.I.D.A. DA H81 01698-02).
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Baer, A.M., Wathey, R.B. Covert forms of child abuse: A preliminary study. Child Psych Hum Dev 8, 115–128 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01463620
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01463620