Impact of COVID-19 on Child Maltreatment: Income Instability and Parenting Issues

Abstract

Introduction: Children are widely recognized as a vulnerable population during disasters and emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic, like a natural disaster, brought uncertainties and instability to the economic development of the society and social distancing, which might lead to child maltreatment. This study aims to investigate whether job loss, income reduction and parenting affect child maltreatment. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of 600 randomly sampled parents aged 18 years or older who had and lived with a child under 10 years old in Hong Kong between 29 May to 16 June 2020. Participants were recruited from a random list of mobile phone numbers of a panel of parents. Of 779 recruited target parents, 600 parents completed the survey successfully via a web-based system after obtaining their online consent for participating in the survey. Results: Income reduction was found significantly associated with severe (OR = 3.29, 95% CI = 1.06, 10.25) and very severe physical assaults (OR = 7.69, 95% CI = 2.24, 26.41) towards children. Job loss or large income reduction were also significantly associated with severe (OR= 3.68, 95% CI = 1.33, 10.19) and very severe physical assaults (OR = 4.05, 95% CI = 1.17, 14.08) towards children. However, income reduction (OR = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.15, 0.53) and job loss (OR = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.28, 0.76) were significantly associated with less psychological aggression. Exposure to intimate partner violence between parents is a very strong and significant factor associated with all types of child maltreatment. Having higher levels of difficulty in discussing COVID-19 with children was significantly associated with more corporal punishment (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.05, 1.34), whereas having higher level of confidence in managing preventive COVID-19 behaviors with children was negatively associated with corporal punishment (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.76, 0.99) and very severe physical assaults (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.58, 0.93). Conclusions: Income instability such as income reduction and job loss amplified the risk of severe and very severe child physical assaults but protected children from psychological aggression. Also, confidence in teaching COVID-19 and managing preventive COVID-19 behaviors with children was significantly negatively associated with corporal punishment during pandemic.

Evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the reporting of maltreatment cases to the National Family Safety Program in Saudi Arabia

“… Wong et al (2021) reported that having difficulty discussing COVID-19 with children was significantly associated with more physical abuse, whereas having more confidence in handling preventive COVID-19 attitudes with children was negatively associated with physical punishment and very severe physical assaults.…”

“…The researchers found that income reduction or job loss was significantly associated with severe physical assaults towards children. Nevertheless, income reduction and job loss were significantly associated with less psychological aggression ( Wong et al, 2021 ). On the other hand, Lawson et al (2021) reported that parents who lost their jobs were more likely to psychologically maltreat their children during the pandemic.…”

Prevalence of Child Maltreatment during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Survey of Rural Hubei, China

“…Poverty has been shown to be significantly related to child maltreatment and the relationship is still strong (Berger and Waldfogel, 2011;Drake and Jonson-Reid, 2013;Pelton, 2015;Yang, 2015). The COVID-19 outbreak acts as a catalyst for a considerable rise in child maltreatment by exacerbating household poverty, and studies have shown that unemployment during the epidemic, family income instability and consequent poverty are the important risk factors for child maltreatment (Lawson et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2021;Wong et al, 2021). In 2020, the widespread economic downturn and income decrease pushed more disadvantaged families under greater financial and parenting pressure.…”

Faktor-faktor yang Memengaruhi Child Maltreatment Selama Wabah Covid-19

“…Di samping itu, program stay at home selama pandemik kerap diikuti timbulnya sikap agresif anak yang menyebabkan peningkatan status stress pada orang tua. Sehingga orang tua cenderung menggunakan kekerasan kepada anak saat di rumah (Berkel et al, 2020;Chung et al, 2020;Wong et al, 2021). Di samping itu, kebanyakan orang tua yang penggangguran di suatu wilayah tertentu akan meninggalkan anak-anak mereka untuk bekerja di luar kota.…”