From my own observation, I think that's often true. When I was a young mom in a parenting group, I saw that moms who grew up like that would go one of two ways -- either they'd mindlessly recreate the same condition for their children or they'd make a very conscious decision to do something entirely different and break that chain.

I know you write under a pen name but have professional chops in this field. Surely somebody has studied this and reported that victims of elder abuse are often the very people who abused their children? I do not want to imply anyone deserves to be abused, but I also think that it might help convince the public that you should not model abusive behavior to the people upon whom you may be dependent for care in your old age.