The Relationship Between Co-Parenting And Child Maltreatment In Preschoolers

Child maltreatment is an important issue of global concern,and it is extremely important to focus on child maltreatment in the family because the most vulnerable children in the early developmental years,0-6 years,are those who are abused by their parents.In the family system,the parenting system interacts with the parent-child system,and co-parenting,which has been the focus of policy attention in China in recent years,is also closely related to the parenting stress that arises in the parenting process.Therefore,based on family system theory and parenting stress theory,this paper aims to discuss the relationship between co-parenting,parenting stress and child maltreatment among parents of preschool children in the context of our culture,and further draw countermeasures to reduce parenting stress,carry out family education scientifically and prevent child maltreatment based on the research results.In this study,2369 parents of children under 6 years old were selected as the study subjects from five kindergartens in a city of Xinjiang by questionnaire method,and the questionnaire was administered by parent report,including the self-administered Family Basic Information Form,Chinese version of Brief Co-Parenting Scale(Brief CRS),Chinese revised version of Parent-Child Conflict Strategy Scale(CTSPC),Brief Co-Parenting Scale Brief Parenting Stress Scale(PSI-SF),and data analysis using SPSS26.0 and Mplus to obtain data on parental co-parenting,parenting stress,and child maltreatment.The findings were as follows:(1)there was a significant negative correlation between parental co-parenting and parenting stress and child maltreatment in preschool children;the more parental co-parenting behaviors,the less parenting stress and the less occurrence of child maltreatment;there was a positive correlation between parental stress and child maltreatment in preschool children;the higher the level of parenting stress,the more occurrence of child maltreatment.(2)with regard to child gender,boys experienced more child maltreatment than girls.In terms of parental gender,fathers perpetrated less child maltreatment than mothers.In terms of household income,child maltreatment occurred more frequently in households with higher monthly incomes.(3)parenting stress partially mediated the role of parental co-parenting and child maltreatment in preschool children.The results of this study suggest that strengthening parental co-parenting is very necessary in current society to reduce parenting stress on the one hand,and to reduce the risk of child maltreatment on the other.Based on this,this paper provides countermeasures for scientifically conducting family education and promoting co-parenting from the perspective of social work:first,to take advantage of professional strengths to conduct group activities for parents of preschool children on the theme of parenting education;second,to promote the importance of family education and encourage fathers to participate in parenting;third,to offer educational group activities for fathers of preschool children;and fourth,to visit communities to monitor parents’ fulfillment of family education responsibilities.At the same time,combining the experiences and policies of other countries,suggestions were made for reducing child-rearing stress and child abuse from three levels:family,state,and social workers.