Prevalence and influencing factors on psychological violence from parents to child / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the prevalence of psychological violence against children by parents and to explore possible influencing factors.Methods In two primary schools from a city,located in the northeast part of China,1 164 parents of the pupils from grade 1 to 6,were anonymously surveyed by a self-administered questionnaire,to analyze the situation of psychological violence and influencing factors.Results Of the 1 164 parents,78.1％ reported that they practised psychological violence towards their children.Compared with girls,boys were more psychologically maltreated by their parents (81.3％ vs.74.7％,P＜0.01).Data from the multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that following factors increased the risk of psychological violence against children:child being male (OR=1.684);initiated by the mother (OR=1.640),parents experiences of psychologically violent victimization (OR=2.064) during their childhood,supportive or tolerant attitudes towards corporal punishment (OR=2.618) from the parents,low awareness of the harmfulness of psychological violence against children (OR=1.666) of the parents,and lower social economic status (OR=1.745) of the family,etc.Conclusion Psychological violence experienced by the parents appeared very common.Prevention programs on psychological violence should be strengthened to increase the awareness of parents on this serious problem.