abusive parents
... Review have studied, all were ages one-to-three-year-olds and all children exhibited behavioral characteristics of abusive parents. The children reacted with violence when they were confronted with another child in distress. The mere sight and sound of a crying child of the same age not only aroused no sympathy or concern in these toddlers, but actually provoked reactions ranging from anger and threats to physical attack. Here they differed markedly from the nine sociologically-matched children in the control group. While all the children in the study came from highly stressed, disadvantaged backgrounds I.E.(absent fathers, welfare mothers, poverty), the non-abused kids, like their middle-class counterparts in earlier studies, expressed concern, empathy or sadness in response to one-third of the distress scenes they witnessed. After further reviewing of the abused toddlers, none of them ever showed a concerned response to the children in distress. Instead the abused toddlers reacted with cries of "Cut it out!", hissing, teeth-baring, slapping, and even beating the troubled child. Researches predict the ramifications of these actions are disturbing and point out the abused preschoolers not only mirrored their parents' self-isolation and aggression, but...