Recently child abuse has begun to be recognized as a serious social problem in our society and many studies are conducted on the issue. However, a majority of them concentrate on young children, and adolescents tend to be overlooked. Therefore, this s...
Recently child abuse has begun to be recognized as a serious social problem in our society and many studies are conducted on the issue. However, a majority of them concentrate on young children, and adolescents tend to be overlooked. Therefore, this study was conducted to focus on adolescents.
The main purposes of this study are to examine the incidence and conditions of abuse that adolescents experience from their parents and to explore the impact of such abuse on their mental health.
Major findings are as follows:
1. About 1/2 of the adolescents in this study experienced emotional abuse from their parents for the past year and about 1/3 of these adolescents experienced physical abuse during this period.
2. The adolescents' experience of abuse has a tremendous effect on their mental health. All of three different kinds of abuse: emotional abuse, mild physical abuse, and severe physical abuse strongly affect one's mental health. In addition, the frequency of abuse is also negatively associated to their mental health.