Professional Article Critique

The article which I read was called "Child abuse and neglect and adult intimate relationships: a prospective study" by Rebecca A. Colman and Cathy Spatz Widom.

A) The concept studied was about the effects of abused children on there later years as adults. There were several theoretical perspectives and it was hypothesized that they would find a link between child maltreatment and impaired social functioning. The study wanted to prove that abused and neglected children would develop thoughts which would be detrimental to forming good interaction between other people, and their sexual partner.

B) The problem examined was the inability for abused or neglected children to interact with intimate partners. They used a "large prospective study of childhood maltreatment to describe intimate relationships of a grown sample of abused and neglected and controlled children." The adults from the neglected children group had to have court documented cases of abuse from their childhood. The data was taken from the "county juvenile and criminal courts in a metropolitan area in the Midwest during the years 1967-1971." The first step of the project was to find young children who were abused, and children who were not abused. Part two of the study was meant to find the control group and the abused group and find out what the affects of abuse and maltreatment have had on their life. They then contacted the people who they would like to participate and asked them to come in for a 2 hour in person interview. The people participating had no idea why they were there, and answered questions voluntarily.

C) The hypothesis was correct in some aspects but wrong in others. Abuse was not a factor in the since of marriage, the rates were the same. Child abuse did however increase the likelihood of males and females living together before marriage. Victims of child abuse and neglect however were less likely to be involved with someone then the controls. Childhood neglect was the biggest reason for lower rates of romantic involvement. The Abused and neglected were also more likely to have walked out on a partner, or have had a divorce. I believe that the hypothesis was supported because the adults who were abused showed signs of it later in life, and had trouble with relationships.

D) The author said that he had got the answer which he expected. Adults who had been abused in there earlier years showed signs in