STUDY OF RELATIONSHIP OF HOME ENVIRONMENT AND PARENTAL ACCEPTANCE-REJECTION WITH CHILD ABUSE

Abstract

The present study focused on the relationship of child abuse and neglect with patterns of parental acceptance-rejection towards their children and the role these patterns play in child abuse. An indigenously developed Child Abuse Scale comprising 34 items was used to identify children with different levels and types of abuse and neglect. The Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire and Index of Family Relations were used to investigate parenting styles and family interactions. The study was conducted on a randomly selected sample of 200 children (100 boys and 100 girls) aged 8–12 years from six cities of Punjab. The results showed high reliability of instruments and indicated that severely abused children perceived both parents as more rejecting compared to mildly abused children. Moreover, severely abused children perceived their intra-familial environment as more problematic and disturbing.