Child abuse by the middle class? A study of professionals in India

The purpose of this study was to determine if the abuse of children was prevalent among middle-class professionals in India. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of 319 subjects, in three cities in India, to assess their attitudes toward child rearing and their expectations about child development. These were then correlated with the methods of conflict resolution which had been used with children in the past year. Of the subjects who participated in the study, 56.9% reported having used "acceptable" violence, while 41.9% revealed that they had engaged in "abusive" violence. Interestingly, 2.9% admitted to having employed "extreme" violence toward their children. The correlations between parental attitudes and/or expectations and the use of different methods of conflict resolution did not occur as frequently as anticipated, suggesting that violence against children in India may well be the result of social sanction. Implications for intervention are suggested.