Research articleDoes the gender of parent or child matter in child maltreatment in China?☆
Introduction
Child maltreatment is a public health problem worldwide (Butchart et al., 2006, Oates, 2013, Stoltenborgh et al., 2013), including in China. It is estimated that 1 in 4 children has experienced some type of physical abuse during childhood or neglect (Fang et al., 2015, Ji and Finkelhor, 2015), and 1 in 5 children have experienced some form of psychological aggression (Fang et al., 2015). In particular, the rate of physical abuse is higher than the international estimate (22.6%) from a meta-analysis of the 111 studies conducted in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America, and the estimate (16.7%) for Asian studies only (Stoltenborgh et al., 2013). Child maltreatment is associated with psychological and behavioral problems in childhood and early adulthood, such as depression, anxiety disorders, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, aggression and violence toward others, risky sexual behaviors and post-traumatic stress disorder, in later life (Anda et al., 2006, Dube et al., 2001, Gershoff, 2002, Gilbert et al., 2009, Lansford et al., 2002, MacKenzie et al., 2013, Scott et al., 2010, Thornberry et al., 2010). Findings from studies in China show that child maltreatment also negatively impacts children's health outcomes as well (Gershoff et al., 2010, Kwok et al., 2013, Wong et al., 2010). It has been reported that child gender (especially boys) is a risk factor of child maltreatment in China (Liao, Lee, Roberts-Lewis, Hong, & Jiao, 2011). Few studies, however, have explored the role of parents’ gender and the interaction of the gender-specific parent–child dyad that play in the occurrence of child physical maltreatment, psychological aggression and neglect among Chinese children.
The majority of Chinese studies on child maltreatment reveal an overall rate of child maltreatment perpetrated by either parent (Ji & Finkelhor, 2015); few studies have compared the differences between mothers and fathers in the rates of maltreatment toward children. Research in Western countries and Hong Kong shows that mothers report higher rates and more frequent use of corporal punishment toward their children than fathers do (Lansford et al., 2002, Tang, 2006). Wang and Liu (2014) found that more Chinese mothers reported psychological aggression and corporal punishment in Mainland China. A large study that was conducted in nine countries, including Mainland China, in which parents reported information about their use of corporal punishment with their children, also reveals the same usage pattern for mild corporal punishment, while the results regarding severe corporal punishment show that fathers are more likely to be the perpetrators (Lansford et al., 2010).
These findings can be explained by the Chinese traditional gender-linked child rearing practice. Due to the influence of Confucianism and the patriarchal social and family structure, Chinese fathers are viewed as instrumental providers, and are culturally empowered to use physical force or other forms of harsh strategies to discipline children and train their obedience (Ho, 1987, Ng et al., 2011). On the other hand, Chinese mothers play a more caring role in child rearing, such as feeding, dressing and providing emotional support (Jankowiak, 1992). As the primary caregivers, mothers spend more time with children, and therefore they are more likely to conflict with their children and practice more minor form of disciplinary strategy such as psychological aggression and corporal punishment to handle the conflicts and correct children's misbehavior. This gender-linked parenting style is consistent, to some extent, with findings from the western society that mothers demonstrate more authoritative (e.g. emotionally supportive and responsive) parenting styles and fathers exhibit more authoritarian (e.g. less supportive and high-control) parenting styles (Russell et al., 2003, Tein et al., 1994).
The gender of a child is also associated with the occurrence of child maltreatment perpetrated by parents. Studies in the Chinese context find that boys are more likely than girls to be physically abused (Liao et al., 2011), while girls are more likely than boys to be neglected (Hua et al., 2014). This phenomenon reflects the parental gender-linked expectations for children. Chinese boys, as compared to girls, face higher expectations from parents with respect to their abilities, educational investment and success, and old-age support (Hannum, Kong, & Zhang, 2009). Corporal punishment and even physical abuse have been used as a child-rearing practice to enhance parents’ strict discipline for children (particularly for boys), to train their moral behavior and obedience, and to correct misbehavior. Due to the higher value and expectations of boys, they are less likely to be neglected than girls by their parents.
The disparity of child abuse between boys and girls may be also due to gender-linked behavior characteristics. Disobedience is one of the main reasons why Chinese parents practice corporal punishment (Qiao & Xie, 2015). Boys demonstrated more aggressive and delinquent behavior (Xing, Wang, Zhang, He, & Zhang, 2011), which may be regarded as misconduct that disturbs interpersonal harmony or being unfalial to their parents. Therefore, they are at higher risk of being disciplined by minor or severe forms of harsh discipline to regulate their behaviors. In contrast, girls are socialized as more obedient, considerate and less aggressive in the Chinese context and are less likely to elicit parental harsh discipline (Xing & Wang, 2013).
The interplay between the parents’ gender and the child's gender in the occurrence of child maltreatment in the Chinese context remains poorly understood. Traditionally, father–son relationship is the most important relationship in the Chinese kinship, and fathers are often more demanding with their sons (Ho, 1987, Jankowiak, 1992). However, researchers found that there is no significant gender interaction in child abuse–both parents are more likely to mistreat boys than girls (Lansford et al., 2010, Wang and Liu, 2014), indicating that in spite of the traditional gender-linked role in child rearing, both mothers and fathers are equally involved in disciplining children, especially for boys.
It should be noted that these findings should be explained cautiously due to limitations. For example, the survey instrument used in Lansford et al. (2010) is a self-developed tool, and it has not been validated; therefore, the reliability and validity of the findings is unclear. With respect to Wang and Liu (2014), although they collected data from both mothers and fathers using an established instrument, they failed to consider the dyadic nature of the data in the analysis and to address the possible interaction between parental gender and child gender because they treated maternal and paternal child abuse separately. In addition, it is found that paternal involvement in child discipline increases with children growing up (Jankowiak, 1992), however, the children sample aged from 3 to 15 years old were treated as a homogenous group in Wang and Liu (2014), which may be inappropriate to reveal the dyadic parent–child relationship specific to an early adolescent population. Third, in Wang and Liu (2014), researchers collected child abuse information from parents. However, studies suggested that parents tend to underreport child abuse especially severe forms such as physical abuse and child reports is relatively more accurate and informative in estimating the occurrence of child maltreatment (Chan, 2012, McGee et al., 1997, Winegar and Lipschitz, 1999). Last but not least, to our knowledge, no study has attempted to examine the parent-child gender interaction in neglect.
To fill in the gaps, the present study aims to (1) describe the prevalence and frequency of child maltreatment including psychological aggression, corporal punishment, physical abuse (severe physical abuse and very severe physical abuse) and neglect, and (2) examine the pattern of the role of parents’ and child's gender role in the occurrence of child maltreatment, among a Chinese community sample of early adolescents. We measured the self-report child maltreatment using a validated and widely used tool—the Parent–Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTSPC) (Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor, Moore, & Runyan, 1998)—to decrease the rate of inaccurate responses (Bifulco, Brown, & Harris, 1994).
Section snippets
Participants and Procedures
The present study is part of the Wave II of the Jintan Child Cohort Study (Liu et al., 2010, Liu et al., 2011b, Liu et al., 2015). The cohort was built in 2004–2005 in Jintan City, China. Using a two-step cluster sampling method (details were described in Liu et al., 2010), 1,656 children who were representative of the children aged 3–5 years old in Jintan city were invited to participate. During Wave I of data collection in 2005–2007, 1,385 children and their parents and teachers responded to
The Prevalence of Child Maltreatment
Children reported that non-violent discipline strategy was the most frequently used type of discipline by both fathers (85.8% for boys and 88.3% for girls) and mothers (88.8% for boys and 92.2% for girls). About two-thirds of the children experienced psychological aggression by mothers, and more than half of the children experienced psychological aggression by fathers. About half of boys reported experiencing corporal punishment from their parents, and this rate did not differ by parent's
Discussion
In this cross-sectional study, we found a significant prevalence of psychological aggression, physical abuse and neglect in our sample. In addition, we found significant differences on rates of maltreatment according to child's and parent's gender. Boys were more likely than girls to report physical abuse, and, in particular, abuse perpetrated by their fathers. Furthermore, mothers were more likely than fathers to practice psychological aggression and corporal punishment against both boys and
Conflict of Interest
There is no conflict of interest for the authors.
Acknowledgements
We thank the children, parents and teachers for participating in the study and the research assistants in Jintan for data collection and coordination. We thank Dr. Russell Localio for help with statistical analysis. NC also thanks the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for financial support.
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This study was funded by the National Institute of Environment Health Sciences grants (R01-ES018858, K01-ES015877, and K02-ES019878), the Research Award of the Office of Nursing Research at the School of Nursing of the University of Pennsylvania, and the GAPSA-Provost Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Innovation of the University of Pennsylvania.
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These authors contributed equally to this manuscript and are acknowledged as co-first authors.