Citation

Compier-de Block LH, Alink LR, Linting M, van den Berg LJ, Elzinga BM, Voorthuis A, Tollenaar MS, Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ. J. Fam. Violence 2017; 32(2): 207-217.

Affiliation

0000 0001 2312 1970grid.5132.5Centre for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10896-016-9902-3

PMID

28163367

Abstract

Parent-child agreement on child maltreatment was examined in a multigenerational study. Questionnaires on perpetrated and experienced child maltreatment were completed by 138 parent-child pairs. Multi-level analyses were conducted to explore whether parents and children agreed about levels of parent-to-child maltreatment (convergence), and to examine whether parents and children reported equal levels of child maltreatment (absolute differences). Direct and moderating effects of age and gender were examined as potential factors explaining differences between parent and child report. The associations between parent- and child-reported maltreatment were significant for all subtypes, but the strength of the associations was low to moderate. Moreover, children reported more parent-to-child neglect than parents did. Older participants reported more experienced maltreatment than younger participants, without evidence for differences in actual exposure. These findings support the value of multi-informant assessment of child maltreatment to improve accuracy, but also reveal the divergent perspectives of parents and children on child maltreatment.

Language: en

Keywords

Child maltreatment; Measurement; Parent-child agreement