Abdullah Alhassan, Emery Clifton R
Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong.
J Interpers Violence. 2023 Apr;38(7-8):5404-5429. doi: 10.1177/08862605221123280. Epub 2022 Sep 26.
Larger households, involving more children, are theorized as potential risk factors for child maltreatment-resource dilution theory. But qualitative evidence shows that in collective societies, like Ghana, more adult family members may act against neglect, through protective informal social control, which helps to reduce the frequency of neglect. Family members intervention in neglect situations will be more consistent and sustained due to the sanctioned collective responsibility to care for children in the community. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that having more adult family members in the household, who have the will and agency to intervene, will predict less chronic neglect. A three-stage probability proportional to size cluster sample of Ghana was collected from 1,100 primary caregiving mothers. One mother was interviewed in each household, and responses were limited to one focal child. When sample was restricted to those with chronic neglect (neglect > 1), 596 mothers remained in the data. The children have experienced 11 times neglect in the past year, and lived in households with average size of 6 members. Chronic neglect was measured using the Conflict Tactics Scale. Dose-response protective informal social control by family members was measured using the newly developed context-based scale for measuring protective informal social control of child neglect (ISC_CM2). Results from the random effects regressions models showed a negative relationship between dose-response protective informal social control and chronic neglect, and the interaction with household size was negative and significant. Ghanaian families should be sensitized to take advantage of the communal living practices, extended family systems and compound housing structures, as traditional mechanisms to promote collectivity and interventions in observed acts of neglect to protect children. The evidence contradicts the resource dilution theory's conceptualization of large household as risks factors of neglect.
规模更大、子女更多的家庭被理论化为虐待儿童的潜在风险因素——资源稀释理论。但定性证据表明，在加纳这样的集体社会中，更多成年家庭成员可能会通过保护性的非正式社会控制来防止忽视行为，这有助于减少忽视的频率。由于社区中照顾儿童的集体责任得到认可，家庭成员对忽视情况的干预将更加一致和持续。本研究的目的是检验这样一个假设：家庭中有更多有意愿且有能力进行干预的成年家庭成员，将预示着长期忽视行为会减少。从1100名主要照顾孩子的母亲中收集了一个按规模比例概率抽样的加纳三阶段整群样本。每户采访一位母亲，且回答仅限于一个焦点儿童。当样本仅限于那些长期遭受忽视的家庭（忽视>1）时，数据中剩下596位母亲。这些孩子在过去一年中遭受了11次忽视，他们生活在平均规模为6人的家庭中。长期忽视使用冲突策略量表进行测量。家庭成员的剂量反应性保护性非正式社会控制使用新开发的基于情境的儿童忽视保护性非正式社会控制测量量表（ISC_CM2）进行测量。随机效应回归模型的结果显示，剂量反应性保护性非正式社会控制与长期忽视之间存在负相关关系，且与家庭规模的交互作用为负且显著。加纳家庭应提高认识，利用社区生活方式、大家庭制度和复合式住房结构等传统机制，促进集体意识，并对观察到的忽视行为进行干预以保护儿童。这一证据与资源稀释理论将大家庭概念化为忽视风险因素的观点相矛盾。
