The tendency of maltreatment by parents of preschool children in an urban area of China

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine characteristics of the occurrence of maltreatment by fathers and mothers of children in an urban area of China. A self-report questionnaire survey was conducted to 493 couples that had had a child using the four nursery centers in C city, J prefecture. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare mean scores on the inventory for measuring child maltreatment (Tang; 2005) between mothers and fathers. Results showed mothers were more likely to report physical and psychological abuse than fathers. For mothers, mean differences by child's sex and age buckets on any maltreatment scores were not found. Fathers with a son were more likely to report physical and psychological abuse than fathers with a daughter. For fathers, mean differences by child's age buckets on any maltreatment scores were not found. Fathers were more likely to report physical and psychological abuse toward male children than female children. Mean differences by children's age buckets between mothers and fathers on any maltreatment scores were not found. These findings suggest that support systems considering the differences in parent's and child's sex are required in order to reduce and prevent maltreatment toward children by parents.