To analyse the causes and effects of Physical child abuse in Barbados.

Research Questions

1. Why does physical child abuse happen?

2. What are the short and long term effects of physical child abuse?

3. What are the subtle signs of physical child abuse?

4. What are the opinions on the line drawn between discipline and abuse?

1. Why does physical child abuse happen?

The search for underlying causes of physical abuse has been an arduous one. There is not any single fact
which causes child abuse; abuse usually occurs in families where there is a combination of risk factors.
Models evolved during the 1900’s that can be loosely categorized into the following categories: the
psychodynamic, the interactional models and the environmental/sociological/culturally based models.
Another way to outline the underlying causes of abuse is to look at them from the perspective of
interactional variables, environmental/life stress variables, and social/cultural/economic variables.

Interactional Variables

In the book “Understanding Child abuse and Neglect” it speaks of interactional variables as referring to
the interplay between the victim and the abuser that set up the abuse situation. Some authors see
abuse as resulting from a cyclical pattern of parent and child relations. For example, the parent sees the
child as difficult and is stressed by the child’s behaviour. The parent punishes the child, who in turn
becomes more difficult (Bugental et al., 1999;Howe, 2005).

Environmental/Life Stress Variables

Abusive parents frequently experience a variety of stress. Poverty is often correlated with abuse. Socio-
economic variables associated with childhood physical abuse include maternal employment status,
class, and family income. Mothers who did not work or who worked part-time were more likely to
perpetrate childhood physical abuse, whereas blue-collar parents were more likely to perpetrate severe
child physical abuse. Family income was found to be inversely related to perpetration of severe
childhood physical abuse (Black, Heyman & Slep, 2001a).
Social/Cultural/Economic Variables

Child-rearing patterns across cultures can differ significantly. What one culture considers abusive,
another may not. Depending on the culture of the family of the origin, differences in values around the
boundaries between parents and children, the use of shame, corporal punishment, folk practices,
medical care, and reaction to psychiatric issues may all be interpreted differently.

What are the short and long term effects of child abuse?

What are the opinions on the line drawn between discipline and abuse?

Additional research on culture and childhood physical abuse is needed to gain deeper understanding of
the relationship between one’s experience of childhood physical abuse and acceptance of physical
violence as an appropriate means of discipline and as a parental prerogative (Maker et al., 2005). Future
research should focus on expanding and developing cultural risk models of family violence to include
unique beliefs about patriarchy, parental discipline, and gender roles (Maker et al., 2005).

Child Discipline According to the MICS, three out of four children aged 2–14 years (75.1 per
cent) in Barbados were subjected to at least one form of psychological or physical punishment by
their parents or other adult household members during the month preceding the survey.
Additionally, 6.1 per cent of children were subjected to severe physical punishment. Violent
discipline was slightly higher for male children (78.1 per cent) compared to females (72.1 per
cent). Any violent discipline is slightly lower in rural areas (72.3 per cent) when compared with
urban areas (76.7 per cent). Any violent discipline method appears to decrease as the age of the
child increases. This method of discipline is highest among the 2–4 year olds (78.1 per cent) and
lowest among the 10–14 year olds (72.4 per cent). Use of any violent discipline method is lowest
among heads of households with primary education (69.2 per cent) and highest among heads of
household with secondary education (77.1 per cent). In contrast to the overall use of any violent
discipline method (75.1 per cent), severe physical punishment is much lower (6.1 per cent).