Author(s)

Michelle Jin, Qian Wang, Xiaojing Xu, Jie Zhong

School of Psychological and Cognitive Science, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.

The present study aimed to examine different degrees of child abuse and related psychological consequences in the mainland of China. A Chinese version of the Norvold Abuse Questionnaire was administered to 981 Chinese college students. The prevalence rates of child emotional abuse were 16.4%, 8.8%, and 6.9% for the mild, moderate, and severe levels of abuse, respectively, and those of physical abuse were 34.3%, 19.3%, and 3.1%, respectively. Furthermore, 4.4% of the participants in the mild sexual abuse group reported having had no genital contact and 1.0% of them reported having experienced emotional humiliation. The prevalence rates of moderate and severe sexual abuse were 2.4% and .8%. More males were found to suffer from moderate or severe levels of emotional abuse than females. Similarly, more males reported physical abuse than females across all degrees of severity. Mild and severe physical abuse had a larger current effect on males than on females, whereas the impact of moderate physical abuse was greater on females. Overall, Chinese college students reported significantly fewer sexual abuses than similar samples in Western countries. Additionally, more females suffered from mild sexual abuse than males. These findings suggest a potential influence of gender and culture.

Child Abuse, Prevalence Rates, Current Effects, Gender, Culture

Jin, M. , Wang, Q. , Xu, X. and Zhong, J. (2021) Emotional, Physical, and Sexual Child Abuse in China: Prevalence and Psychological Consequence. Psychology, 12, 1325-1340. doi: 10.4236/psych.2021.128083.