Child maltreatment in Chinese societies: A comprehensive review

This chapter reviewed 56 empirical studies on the prevalence and risk factors of various types of violence against children in Chinese societies. The reviewed studies were published between 1988 and 2009 and examined various forms of child abuse among the Chinese population. The vastly ranging estimates of the prevalence of child abuse in Chinese societies in these studies revealed that child maltreatment is highly pervasive among the Chinese population. Physical child abuse and corporal punishment had the highest prevalence rates, followed by psychological abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse. However, the studies also showed that there is a tendency to underreport child abuse due to a lack of awareness of the definitions of child maltreatment, a reluctance to expose a family's shame, and a cultural conceptualization of child abuse that is different from official definitions in Western countries. These studies also discussed various psychological, behavioral, and interpersonal consequences of each type of abuse.