29.1 Is the Parent Discipline Measure Used by UNICEF an Adequate International Indicator of Child Abuse?

Abstract

Accurately measuring exposures that adversely impact child mental health could inform practice, policy, and intervention evaluation. However, measures of some adverse exposures, particularly child abuse, may be inadequate. This study aimed to identify, through a systematic literature review, the extent of psychometric support for the indicator of violent parental discipline used by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) for the larger United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.2 aimed at ending all abuse and exploitation of children. Peer-reviewed publications were identified through databases (PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO) from inception to December 31, 2020 with these search terms: (“discipline” OR “parenting” OR [“child” AND (“abuse” OR “violence”)] AND “multiple indicator cluster survey” [MICS]). The UNICEF MICS is the household survey mechanism for collecting data for the violent parent discipline indicator. Information on the indicator was extracted and reviewed from 48 identified articles and an additional 26 papers cited in those articles. The survey question set, asked of primary child caregivers, is composed of 6 items on different types of physical punishment and 2 items on negative verbal punishments. Each item has a “yes”/“no” response option, and the proportion of households in a country that respond “yes” to any item is calculated to inform the lack of attainment of a sustainable development goal (SDG) subgoal of 16.2, that is, “the proportion of children aged 1 to 17 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month.” No documentation of the psychometric properties of this question set were found. Although some reports cite psychometric properties of the Parent-Child Conflict Tactic Scale (a source instrument), this is inadequate given extensive differences between the measures. There is also scant and incomplete details on international fieldwork that should have preceded the finalization of this indicator. Finally, no evidence as to this measure’s sensitivity to detect meaningful change over time was found. The study finds insufficient evidence to support the current UNICEF measure as an adequate international indicator of child abuse. More extensive fieldwork and indicator development are required to produce an adequate measure to track, and inform efforts aimed at reducing, child abuse.