Department Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Generation R Study Group, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Child Maltreat. 2022 May;27(2):156-162. doi: 10.1177/10775595211024748. Epub 2021 Jun 17.
Previous studies on the impact of COVID-19 indicate that pandemic-related distress increases risks for child maltreatment, although data on the scope of this problem are still scarce. Here, we assessed whether parents with toddlers ( = 206) more often used harsh discipline during the lockdown in the Netherlands compared to a matched parent sample collected prior to the pandemic ( = 1,030). Parents were matched on background characteristics using propensity score matching. We found that harsh parenting levels were significantly elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. Harsh parenting behaviors with a low prevalence before COVID-19 increased most strongly: shaking, calling names, and calling the child stupid. These results suggest that parental tolerance for children's disobedience is lower under the adverse circumstances of COVID-19 and, as a result, abusive parenting responses are more difficult to inhibit. Thus, a lockdown seems to increase risks for child maltreatment, underscoring the need for effective support strategies for at-risk families.
先前有关 COVID-19 影响的研究表明，与大流行相关的困扰增加了儿童受虐的风险，尽管有关该问题范围的数据仍然很少。在这里，我们评估了与大流行前收集的匹配父母样本（n=1030）相比，幼儿（n=206）的父母在荷兰封锁期间是否更频繁地使用严厉的纪律。使用倾向评分匹配根据背景特征对父母进行匹配。我们发现，与大流行前相比，严厉的育儿水平显着提高。COVID-19 之前流行率较低的严厉育儿行为增加得最为明显：摇晃，骂人，骂孩子愚蠢。这些结果表明，在 COVID-19 的不利环境下，父母对孩子不听话的容忍度降低，因此，更难抑制虐待性的育儿反应。因此，封锁似乎增加了儿童受虐的风险，这凸显了为高危家庭提供有效支持策略的必要性。
