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The authors observed patterns of family interaction frequently encountered in 60 cases of child abuse. The maltreatment syndrome is described as the end result of three potentiating factors: the abuse-prone personality of the parent; characteristics of the child that make him vulnerable for scapegoating; and current environmental stress. Role reversal was a prominent feature in the psychodynamic makeup of these families. The parents tended to endow the child with negative characteristics derived from their own experience with rejecting parents.
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Green et al. (1974) studied this question.
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