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The Family Microsystem

Building on this review of ontogenic factors within the child, the parent, and the extra-familial offender, we now move to an analysis of significant factors in the family functioning of maltreating families.

Family Functioning in Maltreating Families

Disruptions in all aspects of family relations, not just parent-child interactions, are often present in the families of maltreated children, although it is not clear if such disruptions contribute to or are consequences of child maltreatment. Anger and conflict are pervasive features of maltreating families, although conflict may be more characteristic of abusive families and social isolation may be more associated with neglectful families (Crittenden, 1985). Husbands and wives in maltreating families are less warm and supportive, less satisfied in their conjugal relationships, and more aggressive and violent than those in nonabusive families (Fagan and Browne, 1990; Rosenbaum and O'Leary, 1981; Rosenberg, 1987; Straus, 1980).13 Furthermore, sibling relationships are more conflicted and less supportive in families characterized by high marital conflict or coercive punitive parenting, and tolerance of sibling violence sets the stage for later family violence (Hetherington, 1991; Hetherington and Clingempeel, 1992; Patterson et al., 1992; Straus, 1980). In many cases of maltreatment, there often is not a single maltreated child, but multiple victims (Faller, 1988). Thus, maltreated children may be exposed to considerable violence involving other family members as well as violence directed toward them (Rosenberg, 1987).

In addition, violence and maltreatment are often not confined to the boundaries of the family. Parents with violent, antisocial, or criminal records or those who are aggressive outside the family are more likely to be aggressive in family relations (Patterson, 1982). Similarly, many incestuous offenders do not limit their activities to children within the family. One study indicated that 49 percent of incestuous fathers and stepfathers abuse children outside the family at the same time they are abusing their own children (Abel et al., 1988). The deviant behavior exhibited toward children by maltreating parents is often part of a network of disrupted relationships within the family and in extrafamilial relationships.

Single-parent, particularly female-headed, families are inextricably linked with poverty (Coulton et al.. n.d., 1990a,b), and the contribution of family structure to abuse and neglect is difficult to disentangle from conditions of poverty. Poor, young, single mothers with young children are at the greatest risk of reporting that they use violent behaviors toward their children (Gelles, 1992).