10.
1177/107755902237267
Baumann,
CHILD MALTREATMENT
Kolko / ABUSIVE
/ NOVEMBER
AND NONABUSIVE
2002 MOTHERS
A Comparison of Abusive and
Nonabusive Mothers of Abused Children
Barbara L. Baumann
David J. Kolko
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
A majority of the approximately 240,000 children in this
country who were physically maltreated in 1997 live with
their mothers, regardless of whether their mothers committed
the abuse. This study compared service use and functioning
at intake for families of physically abused children as a func-
tion of the mother’s offender status. Analyses found few dif-
ferences in the initial functioning and subsequent services
received by abusive and nonabusive mothers and their chil-
dren. Abusive mothers did receive fewer services overall and
were significantly less likely to receive individual parent ser-
vices as compared to nonabusive mothers. This was true, de-
spite abusive mothers receiving less positive parent ratings by
their children at intake as compared to nonabusive mothers.
Results from this study highlight the similarities among abu-
sive families, whether or not the mother perpetrated the abuse.
Future research should include abusive families in the control
group to have the greatest impact on developing effective iden-
tification and prevention programs. These results also em-
phasize the importance of collecting data from multiple
informants. The only significant difference in maternal
functioning was found on a child-completed rating. Mothers
involved in child protective services may be less likely to reveal
negative information about their own functioning.
A ccording to the National Child Abuse and Neglect
Data System (NCANDS), there were approximately
240,000 cases of substantiated child physical abuse in
this country in 1997 (U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, 1999). Women were responsible for
half of all physical abuse incidences, and parents com-
mitted the majority of all abuse types (U.S. Department
CHILD MALTREATMENT, Vol. 7, No. 4, November 2002 369-376
DOI: 10.1177/107755902237267
© 2002 Sage Publications
of Health and Human Services, 1999). Because mothers
are often the primary caretakers in families, it is im-
portant to understand the psychological and behav-
ioral characteristics of maltreating and nonmaltreating
mothers of physically abused children to better iden-
tify appropriate follow-up and preventive services.
Half of all physical abuse cases are referred for
postinvestigative services (U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 1999) to address issues such as
parenting expectations, stress management, social
support, and psychological functioning. However,
there is little empirical knowledge about the services
that families receive. Previous research has simply
shown that maltreating families receive more services
than nonmaltreating families (Bishop & Leadbeater,
1999). A study of 34 maltreating and nonmaltreating
families found that the mothers in maltreating fami-
lies reported using more services in general, and spe-
cifically received more individual services than did
the comparison group (Bishop & Leadbeater, 1999).
It is not clear whether there are service differences
based on the offender status of the primary caregiver.
Offender status is important because interventions
by child protective services (CPS) are often focused
on families rather than individual offenders and vic-
Authors’ Note: This study was supported by Grant 90CA1547 to the
second author from the National Center on Child Abuse and Ne-
glect. Portions of these data were presented by the authors at the
1999 Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement
of Behavior Therapy, Toronto, Canada. The authors express their
appreciation to Jorgene Selelyo, Bruce Noel, and Marc Cherna of
the office of Children, Youth and Families of Allegheny County,
and to the research staff of the Pittsburgh Service Delivery Study:
Jerome Barron, Trish Brungo, Michelle Dawson, Irma Illustre,
Kevin Lynch, and Amy Madden. Reprint requests can be obtained
from either author at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, 3811
O’Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA USA.
369
370 Baumann, Kolko / ABUSIVE AND NONABUSIVE MOTHERS
tims. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the
needs of perpetrating and nonperpetrating parents
in abusive families. Only three previous studies have
compared the expectations and functioning of par-
ents of abused children based on parental offender
status (Azar & Rohrbeck, 1986; Holden & Banez,
1996; Kinard, 1996). These studies have examined
parental perceptions of appropriate child behavior,
child-related stress, parental stress, social support,
self-worth, and depressive symptoms. Child-abuse
potential has also been included. All parents in these
studies were referred for treatment, although none of
the studies analyzed the treatment parents received.
The primary reason for comparing offending and
nonoffending parents of abused children is to iden-
tify markers of abuse potential. Several constructs
have been examined as part of this process. The initial
study comparing offending and nonoffending par-
ents measured parental expectations as a factor
related to risk for future child abuse (Azar &
Rohrbeck, 1986). Abusive mothers were found to
hold more unrealistic expectations of their children
than mothers whose partners had committed child
abuse (Azar & Rohrbeck, 1986). Unrealistic expecta-
tions may be a good marker for agencies to use when
referring parents to parenting education classes and
counseling sessions.
Parental competence and stress are also likely con-
tributors to abusive behavior. Previous research has
found that when low levels of parental competence
interact with high levels of child stress, there is an
increased abuse potential for mothers and fathers
(Holden & Banez, 1996). This increase in abuse
potential can be especially damaging for parents
whose children have been abused previously. Parents
of abused children already demonstrate a higher
abuse potential than is found in normative samples,
though surprisingly there is no significant difference
in abuse potential between abusive and nonabusive
parents of abused children (Holden & Banez, 1996).
Research on differences in perceived stress
between offending and nonoffending parents has
also produced unexpected results. Nonoffending
parents report significantly more child-related stress-
ors than offending parents (Holden & Banez, 1996)
and no differences with regard to life stressors or
social support (Kinard, 1996). These findings are
unexpected, given the large literature showing that
abusive mothers report more stressors and receive less
support than do nonabusive mothers of nonabused
children (Bishop & Leadbeater, 1999; Coohey &
Braun, 1997; Whipple & Webster-Stratton, 1991). The
difference in study findings is likely due to the com-
parison groups. The majority of research has com-
pared abusive mothers with nonabusive mothers of
nonabused children. The differences found between
families of abused and nonabused children are more
pronounced than those found between groups of
mothers from maltreating families.
One of the few differences between offending and
nonoffending parents was found in depressive symp-
toms one year after the initial assessment, with offend-
ing mothers reporting lower scores than nonoffend-
ing mothers (Kinard 1996). These research findings,
combined with those on stress, support, and abuse
potential do not give a clear indication of how offend-
ing and nonoffending mothers would be expected
to differ. In addition, none of these studies
addressed issues of differential service referral, use, or
expectations.
The goal of this research is to describe intake func-
tioning and subsequent service experiences for
offending and nonoffending mothers by using a sam-
ple in which all children were physically abused. The
targeted areas of functioning are those that both
remain unclear following previous comparisons of
offending and nonoffending parents and which may
lead to service referral. These areas of functioning at
intake include child abuse potential, child-related
stress, psychological distress, parenting, and parent
perceptions of child behavior.
Based on research with abused and nonabused
control groups, it is hypothesized that offending
mothers will report greater abuse potential, more
child-related stressors, more psychological distress,
more child behavior problems, and poorer parenting
skills as compared to nonoffending mothers.
Children’s reports of parenting and their own behav-
ior are expected to corroborate maternal reports. It is
also hypothesized that offending mothers will receive
more services overall, and specifically, more
parenting services than nonoffending mothers.
METHOD
Sample and Settings
This sample was a subset of cases participating in
the Pittsburgh Service Delivery Study (Kolko, 1998).
Cases reported to Allegheny County Children and
Youth Services (ACCYS; Pittsburgh, PA) with an initial
allegation of child physical abuse (CPA) or child sex-
ual abuse (CSA) were selected if at least one member
of their family was accepted for agency services or had
already been receiving a service and the child was
between 7 and 18 years of age. Families were recruited
through direct caseworker contact, mailings to pro-
CHILD MALTREATMENT / NOVEMBER 2002
 Baumann, Kolko / ABUSIVE AND NONABUSIVE MOTHERS
spective participants, or, per agency approval, calls to
parents.
Case selection. All child and adult participants had to
provide informed assent/consent and complete as-
sessments. Of the 73 families who participated in the
study at intake and were considered valid maltreat-
ment cases by CPS, 60 included mothers as the adult
participants. Our interest in comparing offending
and nonoffending mothers required a focus on those
children who had been physically abused because
only three mothers had perpetrated sexual abuse. A
total of 37 families had a reported incidence of recent
child physical abuse with no sexual abuse.
To assure reliability of abuse type, abuse reports
were collected from caseworkers, and interviewers
asked adults and children separately questions about
the type of abuse that occurred. Interviews were not
conducted with two families, therefore these families
are excluded from the current analyses. Interviewers
pooled the responses from both informants to estab-
lish an aggregate account of perpetration. In 33 of the
35 cases, the aggregate account confirmed the case-
workers’ report that physical abuse without sexual
abuse had occurred. These 33 mother-child pairs are
the focus of the current analyses. Of the mothers, 17
had perpetrated the physical abuse and 16 had not.
Sample description. Of the children, 50% were girls,
47% were African American, 44% were Caucasian,
and 9% were biracial. The mean age was 11.59 years
(SD = 2.96), with ages ranging from 7 to 16. Offenders
included mothers (50%), fathers (32%), step-parents
or paramours (12%), and other relatives/adults
(6%). Of the abuse reports, 36% were founded or in-
dicated, but 100% of the cases were considered at sig-
nificant risk to warrant referral for services. The
majority of families (77%) had a prior CPS report of
abuse, neglect, or other maltreatment risk (e.g., act-
ing-out child).
In terms of family constellation, data in the CPS
record were incomplete for one third to one half of
the families. In those cases with family demographic
information, 40% of mothers were never married,
40% were married, and 20% were either widowed or
divorced. A total of 47% of mothers had completed
high school or their general equivalency degree and
26% had some post–high school education. The
median family size was five members (M = 4.78; SD =
1.99; range: 8). Most families received some form of
public assistance (83%). Of the sample reported, 35%
had an overall annual family income of less than
$10,000, and 29% reported incomes greater than
$19,000 per year.
CHILD MALTREATMENT / NOVEMBER 2002
371
Overview of Assessment Procedures
Self-report measures and interviews were adminis-
tered to mothers and their children when they
entered the study and again after services were pro-
vided. For these analyses, all measures were drawn
from the intake assessment, except services received,
which was a postassessment measure. Services data
were completed between 4 and 6 months after intake,
either at the conclusion of the initial services pro-
vided to the family or at 6 months, whichever came
first.
Assessment of Abuse Status and History
CPS caseworkers completed forms in the Child At
Risk Field system (CARF) (Holder & Carey, 1986) on
all cases to reflect basic intake information about each
incident (e.g., demographics, incident details, conse-
quences). Six demographic variables (child age, gen-
der, ethnicity, marital status, education, and family
income) and prior contact were selected for demo-
graphic comparisons.
Functioning at Intake
Child abuse potential. Mothers completed the Child
Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) (Milner, 1986) by
marking whether they agreed with each of 160 state-
ments, such as “children should always be neat” and “I
often feel alone.” The CAPI possess high internal con-
sistency and test-retest reliabilities (Milner, 1986).
The 77-item abuse scale, which is used to predict
abuse status, was analyzed in this study.
Child-related stressors. Mothers also completed the
Children’s Life Events Inventory (CLEI) (Chandler,
Million, & Shermis, 1985) by designating which of the
37 potentially stressful life events their children had
experienced. This measure documents stressors that
could influence children’s behavior problems and
parent-child relationships. Using data from the cur-
rent study, we found that this scale has good internal
consistency (α =.99).
Maternal psychological distress. Mothers completed
the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) (Derogatis &
Melisaratos, 1983), which consists of 53 items that re-
flect overall psychological distress. Mothers rated on a
5-point scale, from not at all to extremely how much dis-
comfort each problem caused them during the past
week. The BSI has good internal consistency and test-
retest reliability.
Child behavior problems. Mothers rated children’s be-
havior using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
(Achenbach, 1991). There are 118 behavioral and
emotional problems on the CBCL rated on a 3-point
372 Baumann, Kolko / ABUSIVE AND NONABUSIVE MOTHERS
scale ranging from very/often true to not true. This mea-
sure yields a total behavior problem score and two
broadband scores for externalizing and internalizing
behaviors that are converted to T-scores. The
externalizing scale is reported in this study. The
psychometric properties of the CBCL for this age
gro up ar e well d ocu mented a n d ad eq u ate
(Achenbach, 1991).
Children reported on their own behaviors using
the Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS) (Straus, 1990). They
rated the frequency of verbal aggression between
themselves and their mothers on a 7-point scale from
never to more than 20 times. The average alpha from pre-
vious analyses was .68 (Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor,
Moore, & Runyan, 1998).
Parenting behavior. Parenting was rated by mothers
and children. Mothers completed the Parental Prac-
tices Questionnaire (PPQ) (Loeber, Farrington,
Stouthamer-Loeber, & Van Kammen, 1998) and chil-
dren completed the Parent Perception Inventory
(PPI) (Hazzard, Christensen, & Margolin, 1983).
Mothers rated their parenting style for the past 6
months on a 5-point scale from never to almost every
day, and their average rating is reported for these
analyses. The positive parenting subscale, which was
analyzed in the present study, had good internal con-
sistency with this sample (α = .92).
On the PPI, children’s ratings of their mothers on
nine negative-parenting items were subtracted from
their ratings on nine positive items to create a total
score. For each item, children rated on a 5-point scale
from never to a lot how often their mothers emitted
behaviors such as reinforcement and comfort (posi-
tive behaviors) and yelling and ignoring (negative
behaviors). The PPI has good internal consistency
and discriminant validity (Hazzard et al., 1983).
Service Use/Impressions
Local use of services instrument (LUSI). Developed for
this study, the LUSI was administered to children and
parents at each assessment to document the specific
services received by the family (See Kolko, Selelyo, &
Brown, 1999). Each informant was asked at the
postassessment interview to identify which of 32 ser-
vices they had received, and their answers were then
aggregated. The LUSI was based on (a) a statewide
program monitoring form used to track all of the ser-
vices provided to families receiving family preserva-
tion or shelter diversion (Department of Public
Welfare, Form CY 844, March, 1992), and (b) recom-
mendations from several ACCYS supervisors or com-
munity clinicians from provider agencies. Each
service was classified into one of six primary service
categories, reflecting both the setting and target of
the intervention: (a) child placement (e.g., shelter),
(b) crisis intervention services (e.g., family preserva-
tion), (c) family services (e.g., family therapy, family
recreation, housing, legal services), (d) caregiver/
adult services (e.g., individual counseling, marital
counseling, drug & alcohol, life skills training, home-
maker services), (e) child mental health services (in-
dividual and group therapy), and (f) miscellaneous
(e.g., evaluation/testing).
Service needs and concerns report (SNACR). Parents
and children completed an evaluation of their prob-
lem severity, service interest and motivation, maternal
service expectations, and barriers to service at intake
(Kolko et al., 1999). The overall family problems se-
verity score consisted of the sum of three 3-point,
Likert-type scale items that evaluated the perceived se-
verity of child, parent, and family problems (0 = no
problems at all, 1 = some problems, 2 = a lot of problems).
The service interests and motivation subscale con-
sisted of the sum of three 3-point, Likert-scale items
reflecting the respondent’s willingness to participate.
The importance of different treatment goals or ex-
pectations for the mother was reflected in four 5-
point, Likert-type scale items (ranging from 0-4).
Finally, the severity of specific treatment obstacles re-
lating to the mother’s view of counseling and the
availability of family resources also were rated on 3-
point scales.
DATA ANALYSIS
Descriptive statistics were computed to summarize
child and caretaker measures obtained at the intake
assessment. Chi-square tests were used to examine dif-
ferences in demographic variables. One-way ANOVAs
were conducted to compare abusive and nonabusive
mothers. We had planned to run a binary logistic
regression in a stepwise manner to determine which
variables accounted for the most variance in offender
status. However, owing to the pattern of missing data
across the variables of interest, multivariate analyses
were not feasible.1
RESULTS
Background Characteristics
Chi-square tests were run using offender status as
the independent variable to determine how the
groups differed on demographic characteristics. The
only significant group difference was in marital status
(χ2 = 5.23, p = .04). Of offending mothers, 80% were
single as compared to 33% of nonoffending mothers.
CHILD MALTREATMENT / NOVEMBER 2002
 Baumann, Kolko / ABUSIVE AND NONABUSIVE MOTHERS 373

TABLE 1: Means, Standard Deviations, and Statistics for Intake Functioning and Service Perceptions

Abusers Nonabusers
Variable (reporter) n M SD n M SD ANOVA F

Intake functioning
Parenting Perception Inventory (child) 14 7.93 13.32 14 16.64 9.61 3.94*
PPQ positive parenting (mother) 14 3.84 0.71 11 3.68 0.68 0.34
CAP inventory abuse potential (mother) 12 180.92 86.17 11 180.09 113.52 0.00
BSI symptom severity index (mother) 16 0.77 0.52 13 0.98 0.79 0.72
CLEI total (mother) 14 6.57 4.65 13 5.77 3.96 0.23
CTS verbal aggression (child) 15 13.07 13.42 13 15.54 9.30 0.31
CBCL externalizing scale (mother) 15 69.20 12.90 12 59.25 16.74 3.05
NOTE: PPQ = Parenting Practices Questionnaire; CAP = Child Abuse Potential; BSI = Brief Symptom Inventory; CLEI = Child Life Events In-
ventory; CTS = Conflict Tactics Scale; CBCL = Child Behavior Checklist.
*p = .058.

One-way ANOVAs were run to determine if marital
status was related to functioning at intake. None of
the analyses was statistically significant; therefore,
marital status was not included in any subsequent
group comparisons. Offending and nonoffending
mothers were similar in the age of their children
(11.53 years and 12.56 years, respectively), child gen-
der (47% and 50% male), ethnicity (60% and 44%
African American), family income (75% and 66%
below $20,000/year), and number of previous inci-
dents reported to CPS (1.35 and 1.13, ps = .07 to .87).
Functioning at Intake
One-way ANOVAs revealed that abusive and
nonabusive mothers did not differ in their abuse
potential on the CAPI, psychological distress on the
BSI, or child-related stressors on the CLEI (see
Table 1). Children’s reports of parenting skills on the
PPI only tended to differentiate offenders and
nonoffenders (F = 3.94, p = .058). That is, children of
physically abusive mothers reported on the PPI that
their mothers exhibited more negative and fewer pos-
itive parenting behaviors than did children of
nonabusive mothers. There were no group differ-
ences in mothers’ own reports of their parenting prac-
tices on the PPQ. One-way ANOVAs revealed that that
there were no differences in maternal reports of
externalizing behaviors on the CBCL when compar-
ing children of abusive and nonabusive mothers.
Service Use and Expectations
Following service provision, mothers and children
reported on the kinds of services they and their fami-
lies had received since becoming involved with CPS.
All of the 24 families who completed the LUSI at
postassessment had received at least one type of ser-
vice. A one-way ANOVA (F = 4.02, p = .06) revealed
that nonoffenders tended to receive more types of ser-
vices (M = 2.18, SD = 1.25) than offenders (M = 1.38,
SD = 0.65) Chi-square analyses using the Fisher Exact
Test were conducted with the six subscales of the
LUSI to determine if the three groups differed with
regard to which services they received (see Table 2).
There were significant group differences in which
mothers received either individual counseling or par-
ent education (χ2 = 3.87, p = .05). Whereas 63.60% of
nonabusive mothers received individual parent ser-
vices, only 23.10% of abusive mothers received these
services. There were no significant group differences
in child, family, crisis, evaluation, or placement
services.
Post-hoc analyses were conducted to determine if
problem severity, expectations, maternal motivation,
or barriers to service differentiated offenders and
nonoffenders and might explain the differences in
service delivery. It was hypothesized that abusive
mothers may have received fewer services overall and
specifically fewer individual services because they
were less motivated to participate in treatment, less
interested in services, not expecting services to be
helpful, and experienced more obstacles to accessing
service. Child perceptions of parental expectations
for treatment were included in case mothers were not
reporting their own concerns regarding services. As
shown in Table 2, one-way ANOVAs using the SNACR
summary scores collected prior to service provision
did not support these hypotheses. There were no sig-
nificant group differences.
Post-hoc analyses were then conducted using case-
worker ratings from the CARF system for ratings of
abuse status, problem severity, and acceptance of the
family for service by CPS. It was expected that the case-
workers would have been more likely to accept for ser-
vices and assign higher ratings of abuse and problem
severity to parents who subsequently received more
services. However, there were no significant group
differences on these ratings. Therefore, neither
maternal perceptions of service nor caseworker per-

CHILD MALTREATMENT / NOVEMBER 2002

374 Baumann, Kolko / ABUSIVE AND NONABUSIVE MOTHERS

TABLE 2: Service Perceptions and Provision by Mother and Child Report

Service Perceptions
Abusers Nonabusers
Variable (reporter) n M SD n M SD F

SNACR—intake (mother)
Family problems severity 14 3.43 1.95 12 4.50 1.31 2.60
Service interests/motivation 14 3.93 1.86 12 4.04 2.03 0.02
Expectations for mother 14 14.00 2.77 12 12.00 4.81 1.75
View of counseling 14 1.36 2.71 12 2.58 3.29 1.09
Available family resources 14 1.00 1.47 12 1.50 1.57 0.71
SNACR—intake (child)
Expectations for mother 12 11.56 4.19 14 12.86 4.94 0.51

Variable n % n % Fisher’s Exact Test

Evaluation/testing 13 0.00 11 0.00 .—

Placement services 13 7.70 11 18.20 0.58
Crisis service in-home 13 38.50 11 27.30 0.32
Child mental health 13 7.70 11 27.30 1.58
Parent services 13 23.10 11 63.60 3.87*
Family services 13 61.50 11 81.80 1.14
NOTE: SNACR = Service Needs and Concerns Report.
*p < .05.

ceptions of families seem to explain why fewer abusive
than nonabusive mothers received individual services
or why abusive mothers received fewer services overall
than nonabusive mothers.
DISCUSSION
The primary finding of this study is that
nonabusive mothers were more likely than abusive
mothers to receive individual parent services,
although the abusive mothers tended to be more in
need of parent training according to their children’s
ratings. Nonoffending mothers also received two dif-
ferent types of services on average, whereas most
offending mothers received only one type of service.
These differences were not accounted for by maternal
expectations, interest, or perceived obstacles to ser-
vices prior to service initiation.
The nonsignificant findings in this study are as
informative as the significant results. They show that
maternal abusers and nonabusers of child physical
abuse are more similar than different in intake func-
tioning and services received. These findings are con-
trary to our expectations that abusive mothers would
report greater abuse potential, more child-related
stressors, more psychological distress, and more child
behavior problems than nonabusive mothers of
abused children, and that children of offenders
would exhibit more clinical symptoms. Findings from
this study parallel those by Kinard (1996), which also
showed few differences in self-reported psychological
functioning and stressors. This is encouraging, given
that the previous study included a larger sample of
parents of abused and neglected children. These
studies are among the few to examine differences
between perpetrating and nonperpetrating mothers
of abused children. Previous findings may have over-
estimated the risk factors for maternal maltreatment
by using control groups in which the children had not
been abused.
Another implication of this study is that assessors
should consider obtaining more assessment informa-
tion from the child and other family members. In this
study, a child report of maternal functioning differen-
tiated abusive and nonabusive mothers, while mater-
nal self reports did not. There are many possible
explanations as to why maternal reports may be insuf-
ficient to detect statistically significant differences. For
example, previous research has found that abusive
mothers are less likely than control mothers to blame
themselves for poor mother-child interactions (Bradley
& Peters, 1991). This finding may carry over to moth-
ers whose children have been abused by someone else,
as they may be trying to avoid feelings of guilt or blame
for their children’s victimization. Future research and
clinical evaluations would benefit by using multiple
informants when assessing parental competency,
parenting practices, and parent-child relationships.
Currently, few parent evaluations include informa-
tion from knowledgeable other persons (Budd,
Poindexter, Felix, & Polan, 1999). Evaluations of
parental competency, often requested because of

CHILD MALTREATMENT / NOVEMBER 2002

 Baumann, Kolko / ABUSIVE AND NONABUSIVE MOTHERS
alleged child abuse or neglect, typically include only a
psychological assessment with the parent (Budd et al.,
1999). Findings from this study indicate that parent
interviews provide limited information. The move by
some researchers and clinicians to create comprehen-
sive assessment protocols that include self-report
instruments, behavioral observations and interviews
(e.g., Heller & Breitner, 1999) will benefit families by
providing a more complete picture of parenting,
child, and family functioning.
Although one limitation of the current study is the
small sample size, it is similar to that found in other
studies that have reported significant differences
when comparing abusive mothers to mothers of
nonabused children (e.g., Alessandri, 1992; Bishop &
Leadbeater, 1999; Shipman & Zeman, 1999). Still,
given the small number of mothers and the consider-
able number of variables, the differences that are sig-
nificant should be viewed cautiously. Another limita-
tion of this study may be involvement with CPS. It
could be that mothers were less inclined than partici-
pants in other studies to report on negative parenting
behaviors and psychological distress. Although moth-
ers were told that their answers would not be dis-
closed, they may still have believed that their answers
would affect their cases.
In summary, self-reports of child, parent, and fam-
ily characteristics did not differentiate abusive from
nonabusive mothers of abused children on measures
of functioning at intake. Mothers did differ slightly,
however, in the number and type of services they
received through CPS referrals. A larger sample,
which still includes perpetrating and nonper-
petrating mothers of abused children, may help eluci-
date these findings. Reliable group descriptions may
help to facilitate responsible decision making about
the placement of abused children and the best course
of treatment and education for their parents.
NOTE
1. We surmise that there was difficulty in obtaining full
maternal cooperation. Despite efforts to emphasize the in-
dependence of the researchers from the system of protec-
tive services, parents equated these two systems.
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Barbara L. Baumann, Ph.D., is a senior research psychologist
at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her primary
research interests are in the areas of mental health services research,
child physical abuse, child disruptive behavior disorders, treatment
376 Baumann, Kolko / ABUSIVE AND NONABUSIVE MOTHERS
effectiveness, and child sexual behavior problems. She is currently
working on a collaborative project with community child welfare
agencies to develop and disseminate effective interventions for physi-
cally abusive families.
David J. Kolko, Ph.D., is a professor of psychiatry, psychology,
and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
He directs the Special Services Unit at Western Psychiatric Institute
and Clinic. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the
American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and was co-
chair of its research committee. His primary research interests are in
the areas of child antisocial behavior and youth violence, child phys-
ical abuse, children/youth with sexual behavior problems, and fam-
ily violence.
CHILD MALTREATMENT / NOVEMBER 2002