J Korean Community Nurs.  1997 Dec;8(2):289-303.

An Analysis of Relations between Perceived Family Characteristics, Experienced Abuse and Mental Health in Childhood

• Kim HG

Abstract

This study analyzes the relations between perceived family characteristics, experienced abuse and mental health in childhood. For this, this study used row data by questionnaire, analysis, and frequency, ANOVA, t - Test, Pearson' correlation analysis. The sample was 118 children 10-12 years old in primary school. The findings are as follows. First, children perceived family cohesion and family adaptability highly, family adaptability showed a significant difference from the relations with a parent's job, a parent's academic level, and type of residence. Second, it appeared that some children experienced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Third, in general the mental health of children was good. Their mental health showed a significant relation to economic level of family, and type of residence, creating problems such as depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, psychoticism. By family size, their mental health showed a significant relation to somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. Fourth, family cohesion and mental health perceived by children supported a linear relation to phobic anxiety, and family adaptability and mental health perceived by children supported the reverse -linear relation to somatization, anxiety, paranoid ideation, etc. Fifth, connections with perceived abuse and mental health as well as emotional abuse and mental health were also supported. Further more, on somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, etc, a reverse-linear re lation existed. Physical abuse supported a reverse-linear relation with interpersonal sensitivity, depression, paranoid ideation, etc. and sexual abuse supported a reverse-linear relation with depression. These findings suggest that school and family have to concern themselves with the mental health of children because experienced abuse and family characteristics do indeed affect the mental health of children.

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Child
Child Abuse
Depression
Family Characteristics*
Hostility
Humans
Mental Health*
Surveys and Questionnaires
Sex Offenses