The influence of informal social control on psychological aggression against children in Asian American families

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how informal social control influences varied types of child abuse, such as physical assault and psychological aggression, in Asian American families. Analyzing 74 non-Hispanic Asian American mothers, results from binomial logistic regression indicate that Asian American mothers who perceived higher informal social control in their neighborhoods had significantly lower odds of engaging in child psychological aggression. However, perceived informal social control was not associated with physical assault among them. Findings suggest that promoting informal social control for Asian American families may be beneficial to prevent psychological aggression of Asian American children.

Keywords:

• Asian American
• child abuse
• informal social control
• psychological aggression

Acknowledgments

Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01HD036916, R01HD039135, R01HD040421, and R25HD074544 as well as a consortium of private foundations. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.