Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing  2016;27(1):81-94

doi:10.12799/jkachn.2016.27.1.81

Exploring Psycho-social Determinants to Child Neglect and Abuse among Caregivers with Young Children.

Ah Rim KIM 1 ; Young Ran TAK

Affiliations

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Keywords

Child abuse; Depression; Caregivers; Parent-child relations; Marital relationship

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to investigate the relations among psycho-social factors regarding child neglect and abuse using the data from the 2013 Korea National Survey on Children and Youth. METHODS: Data from a sample of 1,062 primary caregivers with young children were analyzed with the SPSS and AMOS programs to examine the interrelationships among depression, parenting stress, marital satisfaction, parent-child attachment, and child neglect or maltreatment. RESULTS: Depression, stress, and attachment had a direct influence on child neglect and abuse. Satisfaction with marital relationship, parenting stress, and attachment were found to play mediating roles in accounting for child neglect and abuse, explaining 12% of the variance. The results of multi group path analysis showed that some coefficients were different according to the age group of the children. For caregivers with infants, parenting stress did not predict either attachment or child maltreatment, whereas for caregivers with toddlers, depression did not have a significant effect on attachment. CONCLUSION: In order to prevent child maltreatment, efforts should be made to develop community-based psycho-social support interventions focused on marital relationship as well as parent-child dyads and to provide practical child care support.