If primary caretakers have a negative attitude towards their child, it increases the risk that the child will grow up hostile towards others. And it’s not just aggression towards others that results from child abuse; a large number of children raised by abusive parents also harm themselves. This negative behavior occurs because the children don’t learn appropriate techniques for handling life’s disappointments. Someone who isn’t raised with coping skills is much to likely to act “inappropriately” than somebody who has developed more reasonable approaches. The effect of poor parenting, as reported by Dr. Geoffrey Dahmer in “The Bully Papers,” is that all parents get the children they deserve.