Contact:
Mag. My Hue McGowran
Phone: +43-1-81140-308
E-Mail: mcgowran@newsfox.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Chicago (pte022/28.06.2005/12:06) - New research on monkeys has shown that abuse is not genetic, but rather learnt and repeated. The outcome suggests that it may be possible to break the cycle of abuse in families.
Seventy per cent of parents who are child abusers were abused themselves as children. Female macaque monkeys are known to abuse their children, similar to child abuse in humans, and is carried across generations. Such macaque abuse, usually carried out within the infant's first three months, includes biting or dragging the baby around by its leg or tail, tossing it in the air, or stepping on it. Based on this, it has been speculated that abusiveness is genetic.
A primate expert at the University of Chicago, US, Darius Maestipieri http://primate.uchicago.edu/dario.htm , explored this theory by examining two generations of macaque monkeys. Taking newborn monkeys, he cross-fostered them among the mothers, half of which were abusers. The following generation showed that 9 out of 16 females who were abused by their biological or foster mothers were abusive towards their offspring. However none of the 15 females who were raised by their non-abusive biological or foster mothers abused their own children, even those whose biological mothers were abusers.
Maestipieri explains: "This study into primate patterns of abuse can be directly related to human abuse. What it shows is that the effect of experiencing abuse first-hand or through experiencing siblings being abused is very significant in determining whether somebody will become an abuser.
"But it's also interesting to note that almost half of those raised by abusive mothers did not become abusers themselves," he said. "We should try to discover what it is about these infants' personalities or socially supportive environment that protected them from abusive effects."
Maestipieri says that although some abuse is absorbed through experience, either direct or indirect, physiological changes that happen during the abuse can influence later behaviour patterns. For example, says Maestipieri: "There is evidence that early trauma causes people to become more susceptible to stress, and less able to cope with emotionally challenging situations, so that they could react more easily by 'losing it'."
Chris Cloke, head of child protection awareness at the UK's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, maintains that applying animal studies directly to humans is not always appropriate. However he said that: "We know the damaging consequences of child abuse can last into adulthood and affect the way children are brought up. Experiences of abuse in infancy can be particularly important as the brain develops fast in the first year of life.
"With the right sort of help people with abusive childhoods can often grow up to be loving parents," Cloke added.
(end)
|
|
