Family Polyvictimization and Elevated Levels of Addiction and Psychopathology Among Parents in a Chinese Household Sample

Abstract

When studying the co-occurring victimization within a family, current literature often focuses on individual violence and fails to cover more than two forms of violence. This study fills the research gap by using families, instead of individuals, as units and investigating the prevalence of family polyvictimization. Family polyvictimization is defined as the co-occurrence of child victimization, intimate partner violence (IPV) between parents, and elder abuse within a family. This study analyzed a set of data from 7,466 households, with at least a child under 18 years of age, in six regions in China collected during 2009 and 2010. Descriptive analyses and ordinal logistic regressions were performed to explore the prevalence of family polyvictimization, as well as its associations with parents’ addictive behaviors and negative health factors. The lifetime prevalence and the past-year prevalence of family polyvictimization was 2.53% and 1.09%, respectively. Parents from a polyvictimized family were more likely to report addictive behaviors, and to show poorer mental health and more posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms than those who were less exposed to violence. Findings show the importance of the whole-family approach to screening multiple types of violence within a family when one type is detected, as well as the potential usefulness of identifying at-risk families among parents with addictive behaviors and poor mental health.