ABSTRACT
The primary prevention of child abuse and neglect is the single most sought after goal in the helping services fields today. Theories and hypotheses have been tested, examined in attempts to identify the most efficient and valid ways for preventing injuries to children by their parents. Parents charged with child maltreatment were required to participate in psychiatric programs to remediate their “abusive” personality traits. Empathic awareness of a child’s needs entails the ability of a parent to understand the condition or state of mind of the child without actually experiencing the feelings of the child. Data generated from the parents showed a range of attitudinal differences among both parent groups. The Adult-Adolescent Parent Inventory is designed to assist professionals and paraprofessionals in assessing the parenting and child-rearing attitudes of adolescent and adult populations. The data generated from the statistical analyses indicated significant differences between the mean factor scores of abusive and non-abusive parents in each of the four parenting constructs.
