Title: Is this maltreatment?
Description: This cross-sectional survey of Korean college students examined (1) the students' perceptions of various forms of child maltreatment and their reports of personal experiences of maltreatment, and (2) whether the levels and types of psychological and behavioral problems experienced by the students varied based on occurrences of maltreatment. Undergraduate students (n=358) were recruited from a large junior college in Gyunggi, Korea. Three self-report measures were used. The Vignette-Based measure presented situations depicting parental practices ranging from benign situations to severe maltreatment. Participants were asked to rate the vignettes and indicate whether they had ever experienced such situations. The modified Maltreatment Classification System (MMCS) gathered information on the participants' experiences of maltreatment. The Korean-Self-Report measure assessed their levels and types of psychological and behavioral problems. Based on the MMCS, more than half of the participants reported experiencing maltreatment of some kind. The prevalence rate of physical abuse was highest (34%), followed by emotional abuse (30%), witnessing domestic violence (28%), neglect (8%), and sexual abuse (7.5%).

This study found that Korean college students considered witnessing domestic violence, sexually abusive and physically abusive behaviors to be more serious and disturbing than emotionally abusive or neglectful behaviors. Consistent with prior studies in other countries, this study found that when an action causes severe harm to the child, it was considered serious maltreatment. Korean college students indicated lower severity ratings for vignettes depicting behaviors widely practiced in Korea--such as lack of supervision--which may be considered inappropriate and negligent in some parts of the world. Further, individuals who experienced maltreatment had higher levels of psychological and behavioral problems than people who did not experience maltreatment. Moreover, the number and combination of maltreatment experiences were associated with the severity and types of psychological and behavioral problems they suffered. On average, individuals who experienced four or more types of maltreatment fared worse. Individuals who experienced only neglect had, higher scores on aggressive behavior than other groups of participants. For those who had histories of multiple combinations of maltreatment, people who experienced sexual abuse seemed to fare the worst in most categories of psychological and behavioral problems.
Subjects: College students, Attitudes, Self-perception in adolescence, Case studies, Korean students, Psychology, Adolescent psychotherapy
Places: Korea