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A Wound Inflicted by a Friend does not Heal: Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) of Child Maltreatment, its Dimensions and their Demographic Parameters

Research Department
Research Journal
SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science ( SSRG - IJHSS )
Research Publisher
NULL
Research Rank
1
Research Vol
Vol 5, Issue 1
Research Website
DOI10.14445/23942703/IJHSS-V5I1P103
Research Year
2018
Research_Pages
2394 - 2703
Research Abstract

PURPOSE: Socio-demographic factors such as gender, age, residence, parental marital status, parental education level, family monthly income and number of children in family under 18 play an important role in people’s day to day lives and especially in the maltreatment of children. The present study identifies these seven socio-demographic factors, which are hypothesized to influence maltreatment of children through three dimensions (1) What kind of abuse did you suffer from as a child? (2) Who abused you? (3) Who abused you more? METHODS: Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis along with path diagrams are used to extract children’s maltreatment from the factors and Structural Equation Modeling is run to verify the above factor structure and evaluate the influence of predictors on child maltreatment. FINDINGS: The corresponding beta (β) coefficient in the regression equation shows that education and gender are statistically the predictors of child maltreatment at 5% level of significance and affect it through two dimensions (except Who abused you more?). CONCLUSION: Women are more likely to treat their children badly. People with better education are found to enact maltreatment of children. Other socio-demographic factors are not statistically significant in terms of impacting child maltreatment.