Socioeconomic differences in children's victimization to maternal and paternal violence: a register-based study.

AIMS

To explore the potential of administrative data in assessment of the association between parental socioeconomic position (SEP) and children's violent victimization by biological parents.

METHODS

A longitudinal register-linkage study based on child-mother and child-father data, including all children born in Finland between 1991 and 2017. The data included 1,535,428 children, 796,335 biological mothers, and 775,966 fathers. We used logistic regression with person-years as observations and cluster-robust standard errors to predict children's violent victimization in 2009-2018 and assessed effect modification by child's age and gender.

RESULTS

For the SEP indicators, lower maternal education (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.90, secondary education OR 1.99) and lower paternal education (OR 2.24, secondary education OR 1.59) were risk factors for violent victimization. Parental social assistance receipt (OR 2.4) and non-employment (OR 1.8-1.9) increased the risk of victimization to maternal and paternal violence. Income was associated with victimization in a gradient-like manner, with ORs ranging from 1.14 to 1.98 among mothers and from 1.29 to 2.56 among fathers. Children with low parental SEP were at the highest risk of parental violence, particularly paternal violence, at ages 3-8 years.

CONCLUSIONS

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