CHILD-ABUSE BY THE MIDDLE-CLASS - A STUDY OF PROFESSIONALS IN INDIA

The purpose of this study was to determine if the abuse of children wa s prevalent among middle-class professionals in India. Face-to-face in terviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of 319 subject s, in three cities in India, to assess their attitudes toward child re aring and their expectations about child development. These were then correlated with the methods of conflict resolution which had been used with children in the past year. Of the subjects who participated in t he study, 56.9% reported having used ''acceptable'' violence, while 41 .9% revealed that they had engaged in ''abusive'' violence. Interestin gly, 2.9% admitted to having employed ''extreme'' violence toward thei r children. The correlations between parental attitudes and/or expecta tions and the use of different methods of conflict resolution did not occur as frequently as anticipated, suggesting that violence against c hildren in India may well be the result of social sanction. Implicatio ns for intervention are suggested.