Child abuse is a big problem in the Netherlands. A big group of children is structurally exposed to (severe) child abuse. Several risk factors can contribute to the development of child abuse...Show moreChild abuse is a big problem in the Netherlands. A big group of children is structurally exposed to (severe) child abuse. Several risk factors can contribute to the development of child abuse within families. This study aims to investigate whether several aspects of parenting are able to predict the severity of child abuse within families. The sample consisted of 627 Dutch parents that have recently experienced child abuse within their family. The parents filled in self-report questionnaires about themselves, their children and their experiences with child abuse under the supervision of student-researchers. Topics covered in the questionnaire were, among others, the experience of child abuse within the family, the way situations were handled, the level of experienced parenting stress, the level of warmth and involvement shown to the child(ren) and the professional help that the family received. Results showed that the level of parenting stress that parents experience is a positive significant predictor of the severity of child abuse within families. The level of warmth and involvement that parents show towards their children appeared to be a negative significant predictor of the severity of child abuse. However, the level of parental warmth and involvement did not seem to play a significant role in the relationship between parenting stress and severity of child abuse. Gender of the parent was a nonsignificant predictor of the severity of child abuse and did not seem to play a significant role in the relationship between parenting stress and severity of child abuse. The results of the study show that parenting stress can be an important risk factor for severe child abuse, while parental warmth and involvement may be an important protective factor. It is important to take these aspects into account when offering professional help and in future research.Show less
The sibling relationship is a unique and long lasting relationship for individuals, which contributes to the social development of a child. During childhood and adolescence, the relationship...Show moreThe sibling relationship is a unique and long lasting relationship for individuals, which contributes to the social development of a child. During childhood and adolescence, the relationship between siblings changes especially in the amount of warmth and conflict between them. Previous research shows that the experience of differential parenting can cause feelings of jealousy, which in turn affects the quality of the sibling relationship in forms of less warmth and more physical or psychological aggression. The current cross-sectional study examined the relation between differential parenting and physical or psychological aggression between siblings and the potential moderating role of the warmth within the sibling relationship. The sample consisted of 22 children between 9 and 18 years old and their 19 younger siblings also between 9 and 18 years old. The study used online self-report questionnaires to measure the experienced differential parenting (SIDE), sibling physical and/or psychological aggression (CTS2-SP) and the perceived warmth within the sibling relationship (SRQ-S). The results showed a significant relation between differential parenting and psychical or psychological aggression within the sibling relationship for the youngest siblings. This means that when the youngest sibling is experiencing differential parenting, there also will occur more physical or psychological aggression. This relation remained significant when controlling for warmth between the sibling relationship. This relation was not found for the older siblings, which means that when the older siblings experience differential parenting this will not lead to physical or psychological aggression. No significant moderation effect was found for warmth within the sibling relationship on the relation between differential parenting and physical and/or psychological aggression for both the oldest and youngest siblings. Future research should focus more on the possibilities that sibling relationships can offer, especially which protective role a sibling relationship might have. It is also important that parents become more aware of how their children might experience certain parental behavior and what consequences this might have.Show less
Financial shame can lead people to avoid seeking or accepting help with their financial problems. We expect that attenuating feelings of shame motivates people to seek help. To test this...Show moreFinancial shame can lead people to avoid seeking or accepting help with their financial problems. We expect that attenuating feelings of shame motivates people to seek help. To test this expectation, we conduct an experiment in which we present participants with an alleged website of an organisation that provides financial advice. They are presented with one of two versions. In one version the communication of the organisation is geared toward attenuating feelings of shame, whereas in the other it is not. As hypothesized, participants who experienced less shame perceived the organisation as more positive and were more likely to contact or recommend the organisation to friends or family, and these people dealt with the financial situation more constructively (hypothesis 1a-1c). Contrary to our hypothesis, only people with higher shame perceived the organisation as less positive and people with higher shame and stigma would contact or recommend the organisation less often to friends or family and handled their financial situation less constructively (hypothesis 2a-2c).Show less
