Are the Effects of Parental Maltreatment of Children on Delinquency Invariant Across Countries?

• In Event: The Cycle of Violence Through an International Lens: Insights from the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD3)

Abstract

Earlier results of the ISRD3 study have shown that parents’ violence and harsh physical treatment of children has an influence on violent and other delinquent behaviour of youth. The overall results provide strong suggestion that the ‘cycle of violence’ hypothesis is supported. Interesting but not surprising is that the effects of parental use of violence against children as well as children’s exposure to interpersonal violence between their parents are mediated by family bonding, parental supervision and control. In other words, the quality of a child’s family life (and not only delinquent behaviour) is related to violent behaviour by adults, both against the child and against one another.
In this paper, we want to explore the cultural context which may shape the effects of direct and indirect exposure to parental violence by children. There are large differences in the prevalence of parental physical force between the 27 ISRD3 countries. Using the results of 62,636 surveys conducted among 7th, 8th and 9th graders across 27 countries, this paper attempts to answer the following question: Does the experience of direct and indirect parental use of violence affect the quality of the child’s family life and delinquency in the same way across all 27 countries?

Authors

• Claire Aussems, Verwey-Jonker Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands

• Majone Steketee, Verwey-Jonker Institute and Erasmus University