Table 1.
Definitions of potential risk factors for abused adolescent boys becoming abusers themselves
| Potential risk factor | Description |
|---|---|
| Experiencing intrafamilial violence* | Report by boy during adolescent adaption of adult attachment interview17 of recurrent acts of physical abuse |
| Witnessing intrafamilial violence* | Report in adult attachment interview17 of exposure to recurrent acts of marital violence or physical abuse of siblings, or both |
| Rejection by family* | Report by boy in adult attachment interview17 of rejection, emotional abuse, or neglect |
| Discontinuity of care* | Report in adult attachment interview17 of marital breakdown, being in care of local authority, in children’s home or foster home |
| Rejected by peers | Calculated by using sociometry13,14 and designated as present if boy’s rating of peer inclusion was >1SD below mean for whole class |
| Generalised sense of grievance | Present if boy scored >1SD above population mean on resentment scale of Buss-Durkee hostility-guilt inventory18 or rating of generalised grievance was made by boy’s psychotherapist, or both |
| Poor identification with father figure/s | Rating made by psychotherapist of extent to which boy identified with his father figure/s |
| Absence of a non-abusive male attachment figure | Scored as present if all father figures in boy’s life were emotionally/physically or sexually abusive, or both |
| Mother was sexually abused in childhood* | Report by mother during maternal interview of having been sexually abused in childhood |
| Maternal depression | Present if mother scored >15 on Beck depression inventory20 |
| Poor sibling relationship | Present if boy scored >1SD above mean on negative sibling support subscale of network relationship inventory10 or >1SD below mean of positive sibling support subscale |
| Mother was physically abused in childhood* | Report by mother during maternal interview of having been physically abused in childhood |
| Low levels of guilt | Present if boy scored >1SD in direction of low guilt on guilt subscale of Buss-Durkee hostility-guilt inventory18 or guilt rated as not present in adult attachment interview17 |
*
These risk factors preceded sexually abusive behaviour in subgroup of abusers.