Article ID: 2019.001
Using a repeated national wide child-rearing household survey, this paper tackles factors driving mothers to abuse their own children. We find that the mother’s physical health condition, mental illness as well as scarcity of economic and social resources have significant impacts on the probability of child maltreatment occurrence. Put differently, mothers who are in bad health condition, mothers who have depression symptoms, and mothers who are former victims of domestic violence have a relatively high probability of child maltreatment. Additionally, mothers who are living in severe material deprivation environment（etc. in poverty）, and mothers who lack accessible child care assistances are more likely to be perpetrators.
Turning to specific types of maltreatment, we find that physical abuse is more likely to happen in big families with a lot of siblings. Neglect is more often reported in single parent families and families bearing low-birthweight child.
