Does the gender of parent or child matter in child maltreatment in China?

Abstract

Child maltreatment is a public health problem worldwide, and China is no exception. However, the pattern of child maltreatment remains unknown, including whether the gender of children and their parents has an impact on the occurrence of maltreatment. This study aims at examining the rates and frequency of child maltreatment, including physical abuse, psychological abuse and neglect perpetrated by mothers and fathers. We also test whether the interaction between parents' gender and their child's gender affects the occurrence of child maltreatment in China. 997 children from the China Jintan Child Cohort Study participated in the present study and reported their maltreatment experience perpetrated by their mothers and fathers using the questionnaire, Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTSPC_CA). Generalized linear model analyses show that boys were more likely than girls to report physical abuse, and, in particular, boys were more likely than girls to be physically abused by their fathers. On the other hand, mothers were more likely than fathers to exhibit psychological aggression and use corporal punishment for both boys and girls. There was no difference based on the child's or parent's gender in the occurrence of neglect. The findings present empirical evidence that enhances the understanding of the pattern of child maltreatment in China, provide implications for social workers and health professionals to identify children at risk of child maltreatment, and shed light on future research studies.

Maternal and paternal physical abuse: Unique and joint associations with child behavioral problems

“…The associations between physical abuse solely by mother or soley by father and child behaviors were labeled as “unique association”. On the other hand, the association between physical abuse by both mother and father and child behaivors was labeled as “joint association.” The Chinese version of the CTSPC showed satisfactory to good reliabilities (Chan, 2012; Cui et al, 2016). …”

“…Secondly, child gender was not taken into consideration in examining the effect of maternal and paternal physical abuse, considering the small sample size of children who were abused solely by one parent. Several studies suggest that the occurrence and effect of child abuse are functions of both parents and child gender (Braza et al, 2015; Cui et al, 2016; Hoeve et al, 2011; Lansford et al, 2010). Future studies are needed to investigate both the interaction between parents and child gender in the relationship between child abuse and behaviors.…”

“…Accordingly, researchers found differences between maternal and paternal disciplinary behaviors. Fathers carried out more physical abuse than mothers did (Lansford et al, 2002), while mothers practiced more psychological aggression and minor physical punishment (Cui et al, 2016; Lansford et al, 2002; Straus & Field, 2003; Tang, 2006). Nevertheless, a considerable proportion of children reported that physical abuse was carried out by their mothers (Cui et al, 2016).…”

“…Specifically, very few Chinese studies focus on paternal physical abuse and whether it interacts with maternal physical abuse in child behavioral development. This lack of research on paternal abuse and child behavioral development in the Chinese context should be addressed, considering that, similar to the finding in the western context (Nobes & Smith, 2000), children are equally likely to be physically abused by their mothers and fathers in China (Cui, Xue, Connolly, & Liu, 2016). The present study will address this limitation by using the family systems theory as the theoretical framework.…”

Using propensity score matching with doses in observational studies: An example from a child physical abuse and sleep quality study

“…The propensity score for each participant was estimated based on eight baseline covariates associated with the probability of being abused and sleep quality. Guided by previous empirical research, the covariates included the demographic characteristics: sex, age, and grade (Cui, Xue, Connolly, & Liu, 2016;Olds, Blunden, Petkov, & Forchino, 2010), for socioeconomic status: maternal and paternal education, maternal marital status, and house size (El-Sheikh et al, 2013;Marco, Wolfson, Sparling, & Azuaje, 2012;Nadan, Spilsbury, & Korbin, 2015), and co-sleep status (Buxton et al, 2015;Li et al, 2008).…”