-----Original
Message-----
From: dave.mortimer@tiscali.co.uk
Sent: 23 May 2005 23:37
To: J.A.Walker@newcastle.ac.uk
Subject: Do you have any studies which explore the relationship
between family structure and abuse?
Dear Janet,
Thank you very
much for your reply. I wonder if you would be kind enough
to tell me, if you have any research which explores the
relationship between family structure and abuse?
Best regards
David Mortimer
http://www.famyouth.org.uk/publications.php
A study conducted
by the Family Education Trust in Great Britain meticulously
explored the relationship between particular types of family
structure and abuse, accumulating clear data on family configuration
in cases of abuse from 1982 to 1988 (Robert Whelan, "Broken
Homes and Battered Children," Family Education Trust,
Oxford). The results of this study shed light on a pattern
that is highly correlated with child abuse today in both
England and the United States: the absence of marriage and
the presence of cohabitation. The evidence from Great Britain
indicates:
- The safest
environment for a child - that is, the family environment
with the lowest risk ratio for physical abuse - is one
in which the biological parents are married and the family
has always been intact.
- The rate of
abuse is six times higher in the second-safest environment:
the blended family in which the divorced mother has remarried.
- The rate of
abuse is 14 times higher if the child is living with a
biological mother who lives alone.
- The rate of
abuse is 20 times higher if the child is living with a
biological father who lives alone.
- The rate of
abuse is 20 times higher if the child is living with biological
parents who are not married but are cohabiting.
- The rate of
abuse is 33 times higher if the child is living with a
mother who is cohabiting with another man.
