THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPATHY AND THE PROVISION OF CHILD CARE (ABUSE, MALTREATMENT, NEGLECT, PARENTING)
Abstract
A study which examined the relationship between parental empathy and the care provided children. It was hypothesized that among the variables empathy, socioeconomic status and stress that empathy would be the best predictor of good child care; and, that when combined with socioeconomic status and stress empathy would explain the greatest part of the child care variance. Forty poor, unmarried, black, adolescent, homeless mothers each with one, normal, healthy child between the ages of six months and three years were the subjects of the study. The findings supported the hypothesis although only ten percent of the variance was explained by the three variables. However, empathy was seen as making a valuable contribution to the understanding of the care given children by their parents. Furthermore, since empathy has been shown to be capable of improvement by methods which can be incorporated into comprehensive approaches to the treatment and prevention of problematic parenting, the use of such methods should have an impact on the resolution of these problems. While the sample had many of the characteristics associated with high risk parenting, because it may have been unique in several respects, further research with similarly vulnerable populations was recommended as were studies which included analysis of other aspects of personality functioning in addition to relevant external factors.
Subject Area
Social work
Recommended Citation
COSGROVE, JOHN G, "THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPATHY AND THE PROVISION OF CHILD CARE (ABUSE, MALTREATMENT, NEGLECT, PARENTING)" (1985). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8615681.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8615681
