Child poly-victimization and Intimate Partner Violence in Wuhan, China

Abstract

This study is to examine the prevalence and correlates of child poly-victimization, and to investigate if IPV is a factor associated with child poly-victimization in a cohort of Chinese families. Using a multi-stage stratified sampling, about 1,000 households with children aged 0-17 were randomly sampled in the Wuhan city. Of each family, one of the parents or guardians will be invited to participate in the study. The Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ) and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2) were employed as the major tools for measuring child victimization and IPV respectively. The data collection is still in progress and will be completed in June 2010. The prevalence rate of and the risk factors for child poly-victimization in Wuhan, China will be analyzed. Holding an assumption that inter-parental violence negatively impacts the family system, this study hypothesizes that children in families with IPV are more likely to experience poly-victimization compared with those whose parents are nonviolent. Thus, IPV as a factor associated with child polyvictimization will be tested using regression analyses. The findings will implicate that identification of child victims should be extended to cover multiple types of victimization, and thus screening of family violence should involve all family members.