ABSTRACT
Among the parents interviewed were several who had clinical histories of having abused a child in their care. What was striking about the abusive parents, in contrast with the parents who were not (as far as that fact could be known) was their tendency to talk about their children in terms of their children's effect on them rather than the effect of their own actions on their children. These parents appeared to view their children from an egocentric perspective, much as younger children are described in the social-cognitive developmental literature as under standing others only in terms of their own perspectives, rather than in terms of the perspectives of others. This suggested that perhaps one could apply a social-cognitive developmental analysis to adults' as well as to children's thinking about others in relation to the self, and spe cifically to parents' understanding of their children.
