Attitudes of nurses toward parents who abuse their children

Child abuse has justifiably become a topic of concern. Recent literature has emphasized the importance of an accepting, non-critical approach toward abuse parents. This study was conducted to survey the attitudes of pediatric nurses toward abusing or neglecting parents. Data were also collected on demographic variables that might influence attitudes. The sample consisted of 46 registered nurses employed on pediatric unites in five hospitals in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah. The Semantic Differential was administered to measure attitudes toward two general concepts of "abusive mother" and "abusive fathers." In addition, four case studies were presented describing a child abuse or neglect case and the semantic differential scale was utilized to rate the parent described in the case study. The Parent Participation Attitude Scale (PPAS) developed by Seidl and a Personal Information Form (PIF) developed by the investigator were also administered. The evaluative scores (good-bad), potency scores (strong-weak), the activity scores (active-passive) were computed for each of the semantic differential scales. These scores were used for the analyses of data. Regression analyses were computed. The subjects tended to have slightly more negative than positive attitudes toward abusive parents. Previous contact with abusive parents was associated with the evaluative score for the concept "abusive father" in case #4 and the activity score for the concept "neglecting mother" in case #3. The subjects' most recent contact with abusive parents was related to the activity and/or potency scores for four concepts at the .05 and .001 levels of statistical significance. The subjects' previous contacts with abused or neglected children were associated with the evaluative scores for the concept "abusive father" in case #4 (r = .46, p < .01). The greater the number of contacts, the more positive the attitudes were toward the concept. The data did not suggest that educational information about child abuse related to attitudes of pediatric nurses toward abusive parents. It did suggest that the subjects who had attended workshops were more inclined to obtain information about the social history of child abuse cases and the disposition of the case. The age of a subject's youngest child was related to the potency score for the concept "abusive mothers" (r = -.55, p < .05) and the evaluative score for the concept "abusive mother" in case #1 (r = -.49, p < .01). The PPAS scores were related to the evaluative scores for the concept "abusive father" case #4 (r = .31, p< .05). The number of contacts with abusive parents was related to the PPAS scores (r = .31, p < .05). The results did provide some baseline data that have implications for child nursing care and psychiatric nursing intervention in providing educational and consultative services for nurse working with abused children and their families. Suggestions for further study in the area of nurses' attitudes toward abusive parents included a revision of the semantic differential scale. The number of case studies could be decreased. The addition of the concepts "mothers" and "fathers" would provide a method of determining a baseline for comparison with attitudes toward the concepts of "abusive mothers" and "abusive fathers."