TY - JOUR
PY - 2019//
TI - Crossing boundaries: a pilot study of maternal attitudes about child maltreatment in nine countries
JO - Child abuse and neglect
A1 - Mesman, Judi
A1 - Branger, Marjolein C. E.
A1 - Woudstra, Mi-Lan
A1 - Emmen, Rosanneke
A1 - Asanjarani, Faramarz
A1 - Carcamo, Rodrigo
A1 - Hsiao, Celia
A1 - Mels, Cindy
A1 - Selcuk, Bilge
A1 - Soares, Isabel
A1 - van Ginkel, Joost
A1 - Wang, Lamei
A1 - Yavuz, Melis
A1 - Alink, Lenneke
SP - e104257
EP - e104257
VL - 99
IS -
N2 - BACKGROUND: Definitions of child maltreatment vary widely between studies, and even more so between different cultural contexts.
OBJECTIVE: In this pilot study, we examine between-country variations in maternal notions about what constitutes child maltreatment. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The sample consisted of 466 mothers recruited in Chile, China, Greece, Iran, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, and Uruguay.
METHODS: All mothers completed a new Q-sort measure, ranking 90 parenting behaviors linked to subtypes of maltreatment (emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and physical abuse) from least to most detrimental to child development.
RESULTS: Between-country agreement regarding the harmfulness of the parenting behaviors was high (r = .45), but there were different patterns of reported harmfulness of subtypes of maltreatment (although driven mostly by deviating patterns in the South African sample). Further, there were significant country effects on the number and type of behaviors labeled as maltreatment (pƞ2 = .15), and the number of items labeled as requiring intervention (pƞ2 = .19).
CONCLUSIONS: Variations in conceptions of maltreatment need to be studied in larger more representative samples and taken into account in the assessment and treatment of child maltreatment across cultures.
Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0145-2134 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104257 ID - ref1 ER -