Social competence of single-parent children with child abuse in China: Mediation model of resilience

Abstract

Children from single-parent families typically face severe developmental risks, especially those with prior experience in child abuse. This study aimed to investigate the child abuse experience and social competence of children from single-parent families and discuss the possible mediation effect of resilience in Mainland China. This study analysed 431 single-parent children samples collected in China (50% females, M_age = 13.10). Group comparison analyses were conducted to illustrate group differences in social competence between single-parent children with and without child abuse experience. In addition, path analyses were conducted to examine the mediation effect of resilience between child abuse and social competence. This study findings indicated that single-parent children with physical and emotional abuse experience did not perform significantly worse in social competence, but those with emotional neglect were found to do worse. Resilience fully mediated the effect of physical abuse and partially mediated the effect of emotional neglect on single-parent children's social competence, while it did not mediate the impact of emotional abuse. This study contributes to understanding the mechanisms between child abuse, social competence and resilience of children from single-parent families in Mainland China. The findings have implications for social services for single-parent children who are abused.