Behavioural Activation and Inhibition Systems of Fathers, Child Abuse and Childhood Psychopathology: The Mediating Role of Demographics

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the direct and indirect influences of fathers' behavioural activation/inhibition systems (BAS/BIS) on the abuse and psychopathology of their children about the mediating role of father and child demographics using a structural equation modelling (SEM) in maltreated children. The participants of this study were 384 abused children and their fathers who were selected by a random sampling method within a cross‐sectional study. A demographic questionnaire, the Behavioral Activation/Inhibition Systems scale (BAS/BIS), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire‐Short Form (CTQ‐SF) and the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment‐Teacher's Report Form (ASEBA‐TRF) were used for data collection. The fathers' BAS/BIS with the mediating role of father and child demographics altogether explained 54% of variations in the physical, sexual, emotional and neglect dimensions of child abuse, whereas fathers' BAS/BIS with the mediating role of father and child demographics explained 88.1% of variations in all subscales of psychopathology in maltreated children. This conceptual model shows the direct and indirect effects of fathers' BAS/BIS on child abuse and childhood psychopathology with the mediating role of demographic variables.