1st Edition

Child Abuse and Neglect Biosocial Dimensions - Foundations of Human Behavior

Edited By Richard Gelles Copyright 1987
    346 Pages
    by Routledge

    346 Pages
    by Routledge

    Child Abuse and Neglect is the third volume sponsored by the Social Science Research Council. The goals of these volumes include the development of a biosocial perspective and its application to the interface between biological and social phenomena in order to advance the understanding of human behavior.Child Abuse and Neglect applies the biosocial perspective to child maltreatment and maladaptation in parent-child relations. The biosocial perspective is particularly appropriate for investigating parent behavior since the family is the universal social institution in which children are born and reared, in which cultural traditions and values are transmitted, and in which individuals fulfill their biological potential for reproduction, growth, and development. The volume examines biological substrates and social and environmental contexts as determinants of parent behavior. By identifying areas in which contemporary human parent behaviors conform with and depart from evolutionary and historical patterns and assessing the overall costs and benefits, it permits their objective assessment in terms of modern circumstances. In analyzing evolutionary and historical variations in parent behavior and assessing their costs and benefits, the book makes possible an objective assessment of contemporary variations. Its analysis of the occurrence of child abuse in past history and in other cultures and species advances our ability to predict the probability of child abuse and neglect in various social and ecological contexts.

    I INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction II CHILD ABUSE: CROSS-CULTURAL, HISTORICAL, AND EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES 2 What to Learn from Cross-Cultural and Historical Research on Child Abuse and Neglect: An Overview 3 Child Maltreatment in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Vulnerable Children and Circumstances 4 Neglect, Abuse, and Avoidable Death: Parental Investment and the Mortality of Infants and Children in the European Tradition III EXPLAINING CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT 5 Sex-Biased Parental Investment among Primates and Other Mammals: A Critical Evaluation of The Trivers-Willard Hypothesis 6 Child Abuse: A Comparative Psychobiological Perspective 7 External and Internal Influences on Aggression in Captive Group-Living Monkeys 9 Risk of Maltreatment of Children Living with Stepparents 10 Time, Place, and Parental Awareness: A Cognitive-Developmental Perspective on Family Adaptation and Parental Care IV OUTCOMES AND CONSEQUENCES OF MALTREATMENT Children as Homicide Victims 11 Intergenerational Continuity of Abuse 12 The Sequelae of Child Maltreatment 13 The Consequences of Child Maltreatment: Biosocial and Ecological Issue

    Biography

    Richard J. Gelles College of Arts & Sciences, University of Rhode Island. Jane B. Lancaster Department of Anthropology University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.