Health Effects of Children’s Witnessing of Elder Abuse: Evidence from Six Major Cities in China

Past evidence has revealed the negative effects of children’s witnessing of family violence. With our increasingly aging society comes a higher risk of elder abuse, which creates new challenges in the form of the indirect and direct victimization of children in the home. However, research on the relationship between children’s witnessing of elder abuse and their victimization experiences is limited. This study examines the physical and mental health outcomes of witnessing elder abuse, as well as the relationship between children’s witnessing of elder abuse at home and child abuse victimization. A large-scale representative sample of 18,504 students aged 14–18 from six major cities in China was analyzed to investigate the associations. The results showed that children who had witnessed more than one type of elder abuse were more likely to have depression and poor health than those who had witnessed only one type. Children’s witnessing of elder abuse was also significantly associated with child abuse and bullying victimization. These findings offer implications for policymaking and service delivery in family-based child protection and interventions: Future interventions aimed at addressing indirect child victimization should be integrated with those focused on direct forms of victimization in order to effectively identify at-risk families as a whole.