Child Psychological Maltreatment and Its Correlated Factors in Chinese Families

The present study aimed to explore the prevalence and frequency of child psychological maltreatment and its correlated factors in Chinese families. A cross-sectional investigation was conducted among 1,002 parents of primary school students in Yuncheng City, China. Data were collected using the self-report questionnaire anonymously. Results showed that 696 (69.5%) surveyed parents had different extents of psychological maltreatment toward their children in the past 3 months. The high prevalence of parental psychology maltreatment was significantly associated with high scores on parental over-reactivity and low scores on recognition of child psychology maltreatment. These findings indicate that it is urgent to develop cultural interventions to raise parents' awareness of preventing child psychological maltreatment and to help parents use nonviolent child rearing in China.