Parental Experience Of Childhood Maltreatment As A Risk Factor Of Child Maltreatment In Malawi And China: The Roles Of Parenting And Resilience

Parental experience of childhood maltreatment has been identified as a risk factor of subsequent child maltreatment,but the relations between them are still not clear.Studies conducted in this area have been mostly conducted in western countries under the context of individualism culture,focusing on children older than 3 years.This study will explore the effects of parental experience of childhood maltreatment as a risk factor on subsequent child maltreatment and the differences between China and Malawi.Furthermore,the possible effects of parenting,resilience on the relationship between parental experience of childhood maltreatment and child maltreatment will be examined.The reasons for selecting 3-6 years old children in current study are described below:(1)Few studies focus on child maltreatment among 3-6 years old children,as well as the cultural differences of child maltreatment.(2)From the perspective of parent-child relationships,activity scope of children increases since toddler period,and children's desires and hopes increase by years,which may enhance the conflicts between parents and children.(3)From the perspective of international education systems,3-6 years old children start preschool,and child maltreatment may happen in preschools.(4)From the cultural perspective,China is a collectivist country,while Malawi is a country influenced a lot by Christian culture with tribalization.And parenting of Malawian may mediate the Chinese parenting and the Western countries parenting.The current study has four sub-studies to delineate current situations of child maltreatment,explore relations between parental experience of childhood maltreatment and child maltreatment and its mechanisms between China and Malawi.Study 1 tested the reliability and validity of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire(CTQ),ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool-Parenting(ICAST-P),Parenting Styles Dimension Questionnaire(PSDQ),Connor Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC),and Child Behavior Checklist(CBCD)under cultures of China and Malawi.Study 2 delineated the current situations of child maltreatment in China and Malawi.Study 3explored relationships between child maltreatment and behavior problems.Study 4 examined relationships and mechanisms between parental experience of childhood maltreatment and child maltreatment.395 parents of three years old in Hangzhou,Zhejiang Province China and 344 parents of three years old in Lilongwe,Malawi participated this study.Parents filled out selfreport questionnaires about their background information,parenting styles,resilience,child behavior and child maltreatment.CTQ and ICAST-P were used to assess child maltreatment and parental history of child abuse.CD-RISC,PSDQ and CBCL were used to assess resilience,parenting and children problem behaviors.Descriptive statistics,T test and Analysis of variance were used to compare the differences between China and Malawi.Pearson correlation and Regression were used to examine the relationships between parental childhood maltreatment and child maltreatment,and child maltreatment and child behaviors.Structural equation modelling was employed to test the mediating and moderating roles of parenting and resilience.The results are as following.Study 1: Tested the reliability and validity of CTQ,ICAST-P,PSDQ,CD-RISC,and CBCL under the contexts of China and Malawi.The results confirm assumptions for all the tools except CD-RISC.The data was a good fit for the models and all tools retained the original factor structure save for Connor Davidson Resilience Scale which yielded a three factor structure instead of the original five factor structure.The internal reliabilities of all the subscales were comparable with the original reliabilities of the tools.Study 2: Delineated the current situations of child maltreatment in China and Malawi.This study supported the non-universality assumption of child maltreatment which stated that the prevalence of child maltreatment differed by population,gender and race.There were statistically significant differences between Malawi and Chinese parents of three years old child in their experience of physical abuse,emotional abuse,sexual abuse,physical neglect and emotional neglect.In addition,there were statistically no significant differences between male and female parents of three-year-old child in Malawi and China in their experience of physical abuse,emotional abuse,sexual abuse,physical neglect and emotional neglect.Furthermore,there were statistically significant differences between Malawi and Chinese three-year olds in their experience of nonviolent discipline,physical discipline,severe physical discipline and psychological discipline.Malawian parents consistently engaged highly in all the four disciplines and lastly there was statistical significance difference between male and female three year olds in their experiences of nonviolent discipline in Malawi and parental level of education had a significant effect on child maltreatment in Malawi and China.Study 3: Examined the harmful assumption of child maltreatment which stated that child maltreatment causes harm.The results supported this idea.The relationships between child maltreatment and the seven subscales of child behavior checklist and internalizing and externalizing behaviors varied in Malawi and China.Significant gender differences were observed in China on sleep problems and attention problems.Study 4: Explored the effects of parental experience of child maltreatment as a risk factor on child maltreatment.Parental experience of childhood maltreatment varied in its association with child maltreatment in China and Malawi.Furthermore,the mediating and moderating effects of parenting and resilience on the relationships between parental experience of childhood maltreatment and child maltreatment were explored.Parenting mediates the relationship between parental history of child maltreatment and child maltreatment.Furthermore,resilience moderates the relationship between parental experience of childhood maltreatment and child maltreatment in Malawi and China.In conclusion: The findings provide a good case of(?)periodic assessment of child maltreatment in the normal population for intervention;(?)continual exploration of parental experience of childhood maltreatment as a risk factor for child maltreatment for intervention;(?)continual monitoring of the effects of child maltreatment on children's behavior for intervention and(?)strengthening parenting education as a way of preventing child maltreatment.Furthermore,the results have implications in early childhood development and education,family life and social work.