Apilot study of psychological violence against children by parents

Objective The aim of this study is to explore the rate of and related risk factors for psychological violence by parents against their children.Methods A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted anonymously in 128 parents of school-age children in a primary school of a city. The study contents mainly included general demographic indicators, parents' psychological violence behaviours to their children, parents' awareness on psychological violence, and the attitudes toward corporal punishment disciplining children.Results Of 128 parents, 35.9% reported that they had one or more forms of following psychological violence behaviors to their children during the past three months:called a child ugly or foolish, or some other name like that (26.6%);Threatened to kick the child out of the family (10.2%); cursed a child that he/she had never been born (7.8%); Insulted or humiliated the child in front of others (made the children feel bad, stupid or worthless) (6.3%); threatened to seriously hurt the child (4.7%). Compared with the parents who with lower level of awareness on psychological violence, the parents with high level of awareness on psychological violence reported obvioursly lower rate of psychological violence behaviors (46.2% vs. 20%). The difference was significant (P=0.003).Conclusion Parents' psychological violence behaviours to their childen was common. More attentions should be paid to conductpsychological violence prevention education among parents of school-age children, and to increase the parents' awareness on psychological violence problem.