Introduction:

One of the experiences that represent the biggest risk for any society is child abuse. Despite the consequences of this form of violence, it tends to be a hidden and little understood phenomenon. The reason why parents mistreat their children has been one of the issues that has raised the most interest in the investigation of this phenomenon.

Objective:

To determine how the history of child abuse in adults is related to abusive behaviour directed at their own children.

Methodology:

A cross-sectional study, based on a source of secondary information. The study included sociodemographic variables, variables related to violent behaviours directed to other people, pro-social factors and the use of psychoactive substances. From this population, 2 groups were selected, parents who were abusive and parents who were not abusive towards their own children. In both groups the frequency of different factors that could explain the probability of abusive behaviour of the adults towards their children was evaluated. We analysed the association between aggressive behaviour against one's own children and having a history of child abuse. As a measure of association, the OR was used with its respective 95% confidence interval and P-value<.05.

Results:

187 adults were included, 63.1% were women. The median [IQR] age was 38 [2452] years. The abusive behaviour of the parents towards their children was associated with: the female sex (OR = 2.23; 95%CI, 1.13-4.40), partner's aggression (OR = 3.28; 95%CI, 1.58-6.80), aggression towards other people outside the family (OR = 2.66; 95%CI, 1.05-6.74), pro-social behaviour (OR = 0.32; 95%CI, 0.14-0.73), and dysfunctional behavioural traits (OR = 2.23; 95%CI, 1.11-4.52). There was no association with the history of child abuse (OR= 1.54; 95%CI, 0.59-4.04).

Conclusions:

The history of abuse in the parents' childhood was not associated with abusive behaviour towards their children. Other forms of partner's violence and non-family violence were associated, suggesting that child abuse in the study population was related to other expressions of family and social violence.

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