An Exploration of the Social Construction of Child Abuse in Mainland China: a Qualitative Study of the Perceptions of University Students, Young Parents and Social Workers

In Mainland China, there is neither an official definition nor a dominating perception of child abuse. A culturally responsive definition of child abuse is influenced by differences in childrearing practices and deviant abusive disciplinary behaviours (Korbin, 1997). To explore this definition, the present study focuses on the social construction of child abuse in China.

Qualitative methods were applied with fourteen focus group discussions and four in-depth interviews with vignettes conducted in both urban and rural China with young parents, university students and professional social workers to explore child physical and emotional abuse within the family.

The boundaries and grey areas between appropriate family discipline and unacceptable child abuse for various specific family-discipline behaviours are explored. Three major findings were revealed.