A developmental dialectical approach to understanding and working with lower and middle class damaged parents--those identified as abusive and neglectful--has specific features and implications. The approach suggests that (1) the personality characteristics and interpersonal relations of parents are inseparable from their social conditions; (2)…

Several parenting models are discussed in addressing the following premise: we parent the way we have been parented and, thus, parents play out resolved or unresolved childhood conflicts with their children. The following parenting models and their relevant research are reviewed briefly: the psychoanalytic model (emphasizing intrapersonal and…

This paper examines the relevance of social structure, in terms of class, race, and gender, in the lives of damaged parents of low power positions who abuse or neglect their children. The predominant view in the understanding and treatment of abusive parents stresses the parent's poor childhood experiences and the "intergenerational…