Determinants of Child Abuse in Pakistani Families: Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Demographic Variables
Farah Malik

Abstract
The present study focused child abuse and neglect in relation to parental patterns of acceptance-rejection towards their children and the influence of demographic variables in Pakistani socio-cultural context. An indigenously developed Child Abuse Scale was used to identify children with different levels and types of abuse and neglect. Urdu version of Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for father and mother, were used to investigate the patterns of parenting styles along with a demographic questionnaire. The study was carried out with a randomly selected sample of 200 children (100 boys & 100 girls) of age ranging from 8-12 years (M = 10.8, SD = .68). The data were collected from five cities of Punjab. The results indicated that in comparison to mildly abused children, severely abused children perceived their parents more rejecting. Results further indicated that mother’s education and family size are significant determinants of child abuse as compare to the socio-economic status and father’s education which are non-significant.

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