Longitudinal Relations Between Child Maltreatment in Families and Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers: The Mediating Roles of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among Chinese Children

Abstract

Relationships in the family (e.g., child maltreatment in families) and school environments (e.g., psychological maltreatment by teachers) are influential in children’s socialization, but how family and teacher–student domains mutually affect each other and which mediating mechanisms are involved in cross-domain spillover at the within-person level are not well understood. This study examined the bidirectional relations between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers and whether internalizing and externalizing problems functioned as mediators between them after separating between-person effects from within-person effects. A total of 4270 Chinese children (54.9% boys; M_age = 9.92; SD = 0.51) participated in a five-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. Results from random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling mainly found that: (1) Child maltreatment in families predicted psychological maltreatment by teachers, and vice versa; (2) child maltreatment in families influenced psychological maltreatment by teachers through externalizing problems; child maltreatment in families affected the likelihood of psychological maltreatment by teachers via the sequential effect from internalizing problems to externalizing problems at the within-person level; and (3) internalizing and externalizing problems mediated the longitudinal relations from psychological maltreatment by teachers to child maltreatment in families separately. Findings demonstrated bidirectional spillover effects in the domains of family and teacher-student relationships, suggesting that children may be trapped in a vicious cycle of negative relationships through internalizing and externalizing problems, either directly or indirectly. Thus, these two domains influence each other through children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. Interventions aimed at addressing maltreatment should include family, school, and individual (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems) components to prevent a downward spiral.

Keywords

child maltreatment in families psychological maltreatment by teachers internalizing and externalizing problems mediating role

Introduction

The family environment plays a crucial role in children’s current and future cognitive, behavioral, and social development. Abusive and neglectful home environments (e.g., child maltreatment in families) foreshadow a variety of negative outcomes for children, including an increased risk of academic underachievement, behavioral problems, and below-average social skills (e.g., Evans et al., 2013; Flynn et al., 2014). Spillover theory (Parke & Ladd, 2016) posits that adversity in family systems leads to adversity in other systems. To date, most studies have examined spillover between family member relationships (e.g., parents and siblings) or cross-domain spillover between family systems and peer relationships (e.g., Kaufman et al., 2020). However, it remains surprisingly unclear whether negative family environments can spill over and influence negative teacher–student relationships (e.g., psychological maltreatment by teachers), and whether and in what ways negativity in children’s relationships with families and teachers was related longitudinally. Because physical mistreatment by teachers is illegal in China, this study focused on examining psychological mistreatment by teachers as well as how child-specific maladjusted behaviors (e.g., internalizing and externalizing problems) transfer personal relationship dynamics from one context to the other. The current study addressed this gap by exploring the interaction between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers based on spillover theory, using random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM; Hamaker et al., 2015) to understand the potential pathways between the two contexts through internalizing and externalizing problems among children.

Child Maltreatment in Families and Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers

Child maltreatment in families, as family-based adversity experienced by children, is the actual or potential detriment to the child’s complete health caused by parent or caregiver through various forms of abuse, neglect, or other exploitation (World Health Organization [WHO], 2006). Psychological maltreatment by teachers is a negative school-based experience in which teachers exceed reasonable disciplinary procedures and use their power to punish, manipulate, or demean students (Fromuth et al., 2015). Experiences of child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers at school could have various adverse effects on children in the present and future (e.g., Fromuth et al., 2015; Oshri et al., 2018). A meta-analysis indicated that the prevalence of child maltreatment in families ranges from 33.4–54% among children and adolescents in China (Ji & Finkelhor, 2015; Yang et al., 2014); and some studies have also revealed that the prevalence of psychological maltreatment by teachers ranges from 26.9% to 38.7% in China (Chen et al., 2020; Chen & Wei, 2011). Spillover theory, which originated from social system theories, including the ecological perspective and family systems framework, posits that individuals are enmeshed in a variety of interdependent social systems and further proposes that changes in one system (e.g., family) can spill over and impact functioning in other systems (e.g., teacher–student relationships) (Parke & Ladd, 2016). Based on spillover theory, conflicts with families and teachers may spill over into each other, putting children at risk of being trapped in a problematic vicious cycle (Chung & Fuligni, 2011).

In China, derived from Confucianism, Chinese parents believe in parental control characterized by the concept of guan, which refers to how typical Chinese parents concentrates on raising and strictly disciplining their offspring in order to achieve academic (and social) excellence (Wu, 2012). Thus, many parents believe that punching their children is a way of teaching and “disciplining” (i.e., Guan) their children, as well as a way of expressing their love (Qiao & Chan, 2005). Nevertheless, parental discipline might be perceived as mistreatment by their children (Lansford et al., 2005; Moylan et al., 2010). Moreover, the concept of guan applies not only to parents’ behavior in the home, but also to teachers’ behavior in the school (Hui et al., 2011). Chinese culture emphasizes respect for teachers, reflecting that students should be filial and respectful of their teachers (Bear et al., 2014). Guan also incorporates the idea that “outstanding students are taught by strict teachers” (Yang et al., 2013). In order to facilitate their success, teachers can be strict with their students and punish them when necessary (Chen & Wei, 2011), which justifies the maltreatment of children by teachers. Furthermore, parents who have a positive attitude towards harsh punishments might regard the maltreatment of children by teachers as a form of guan and support such “educational” behavior by teachers (Chen et al., 2020). As a consequence, children can become trapped in a “vicious cycle of violence” between family conflict (i.e., child maltreatment in families) and teacher–student conflict (i.e., psychological maltreatment by teachers) and often experience more severe mental health problems than children who experience repeated single type of maltreatment (Finkelhor et al., 2007; Malvaso et al., 2016).

Although spillover theory suggests that family adversity (i.e., child maltreatment in families) and negative teacher–student relationships (i.e., psychological maltreatment by teachers) might interact, few cross-sectional studies have investigated cross-domain spillover from the family context to teacher–student relationships. For instance, Verschueren et al. (2012) reported a positive association between attachment security in preschool mother–child relationships and first-grade teacher–student relationships in the Netherlands. Another study examined the relations between parental attachment and students’ perceived teacher control among Greek adolescents in grades 5 and 7, finding that parental alienation was positively associated with students’ perceived teacher control (Charalampous et al., 2016). Finally, a study of Chinese (Taiwan) children showed that students whose parents had positive attitudes towards corporal punishment were more likely to be maltreated by school teachers (Chen et al., 2020).

Although these studies provide preliminary evidence of spillover from the family system to teacher–student relationships, important limitations remain. First, these studies did not explore the spillover relations from the teacher–student domain to the family system. Second, few studies have analyzed the longitudinal associations between the family system and teacher–student relationships in the Chinese context. Moreover, spillover theory typically refers to within-person processes and requires observation of processes that occur within individuals. Therefore, the current study used random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM) to investigate bidirectional spillover effects within students, bridging the above-mentioned gaps in previous work. Understanding the causal mechanisms between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers should provide a more complete understanding of the complex processes that may be involved in the cross-domain spillover between family and teacher domains, leading to more effective interventions aimed at preventing or reducing children’s maltreatment by family members and/or teachers.

The Mediating Roles of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Spillover theory posits that changes in one system can alter correlates such as cognitions, emotions, and behaviors (e.g., internalizing and externalizing problems) that affect social interactions in other systems (e.g., Parke & Ladd, 2016). According to spillover theory, the bidirectional influence between family and teacher–student systems can occur through indirect pathways such as those driven by individual’s psychological symptoms (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). More specifically, children who experience physical and emotional abuse and neglect are more likely to exhibit internalizing and externalizing problems; in turn, these problem behaviors might transfer into their interpersonal relationships with other adults, increasing the likelihood of experiencing psychological maltreatment by teachers. Copious evidence has underscored that experiencing maltreatment in the family can lead to a range of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems (Li & Godinet, 2014; Russotti et al., 2021). Moreover, according to the child-driven model of socialization theory (Mejia & Hoglund, 2016), negative teacher–student relationships are more likely to result from students’ externalizing and internalizing behaviors. That is, when children exhibit internalizing and externalizing problems, teachers may display more negative attitudes and behaviors towards them, resulting in more psychological maltreatment by teachers (de Jong et al., 2018; Mejia & Hoglund, 2016). Previous studies have revealed that internalizing and externalizing symptoms strongly contribute to teacher–student relationship conflict (Mejia & Hoglund, 2016; Shi & Ettekal, 2021; Roorda & Koomen, 2021). Thus, internalizing and externalizing problems are likely proximate mechanisms mediating the link between child maltreatment in families to psychological maltreatment by teachers.

Similarly, internalizing and externalizing problems can also explain spillover from teacher–student systems (e.g., psychological maltreatment by teachers) to family systems (e.g., child maltreatment in families). According to the extended attachment perspective (Pianta, 1999), negative teacher–student relationships make students feel insecure and students are more likely to believe that they do not deserve fair and caring treatment by teachers. As a result, they may be worried and anxious, or show hostility and aggression towards others (Doumen et al., 2011). Studies have shown that psychological maltreatment by teachers or negative teacher–student relationships were linked to various detrimental consequences in children, including internalizing and externalizing problems (Fromuth et al., 2015; Roorda & Koomen, 2021; Shi et al., 2020). In addition, according to parent–child interaction theory (Urquiza & McNeil, 1996), a child’s behaviors might contribute to the abusive parent–child interactions. Parental control or punitive discipline techniques may be used to domesticate children who are noncompliant and display a variety of problem behaviors (Gao et al., 2017). Some research has also found that children’s internalizing and externalizing problems could increase the risk of child maltreatment in families (Thornberry et al., 2014, for meta-analyses). As such, these maladjustment symptoms (e.g., internalizing and externalizing problems) might also function as gateways for teacher–student interactions to spill over into family interactions.

Current Study

This study addressed the following two major aims. First, the previous literature provides a limited understanding of the cross-domain spillover between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers in this bidirectional cycle at the within-person level. Thus, this study hypothesized bidirectional spillover effects between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers at the within-person level among Chinese children, based on spillover theory and Chinese cultural traditions.

Second, spillover theory generally posits that maladjustment symptoms (e.g., internalizing and externalizing problems) are key mechanisms in family-teacher and teacher-family spillover. Although previous studies have revealed bidirectional relations between child maltreatment in families or psychological maltreatment by teachers and internalizing and externalizing problems, researchers have not systematically examined internalizing and externalizing problems as potential gateways in bidirectional spillover between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers at the within-person level. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether internalizing and externalizing problems would function as mediators in the bidirectional relations between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers at the within-person level.

Traditionally, CLPM is the most commonly used method to test the cross-lagged effects between constructs (e.g., Hamaker et al., 2015). However, CLPM has been criticized for not taking into account within-person effects involving the analysis of processes occurring within individuals (e.g., Hamaker et al., 2015). In fact, these processes through which child maltreatment in families affects children’s internalizing and externalizing problems and psychological maltreatment by teachers take place at the level of the individuals. The current study thus used random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM; see Figure 1 for a schematic representation) to investigate the longitudinal links between child maltreatment in families, internalizing and externalizing problems and psychological maltreatment by teachers. The RI-CLPM is an extension of CLPM in a multilevel framework (Hamaker et al., 2015). RI-CLPM effectively models stable, trait-like between-person differences between the constructs by extracting random intercepts. By excluding between-person variance, the estimated lagged associations between constructs in RI-CLPM relate solely to the fluctuations that occur within-person over time (Hamaker et al., 2015).

Figure 1.

Conceptual model describing within-person associations between child maltreatment in families, psychological maltreatment by teachers and internalizing and externalizing problems. Note. CMF Child Maltreatment in Families, PMT Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers, Int Internalizing Problems, Ext Externalizing Problems, T1–T5 represents Time 1-Time 5, respectively.

Method

Procedures

This study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of South China Normal University in China and the relevant school boards, principals, and teachers conformed to ethical guidelines (Mathews et al., 2022; Smith, 2016). Informed consent was obtained from all parents and student assent was obtained from all children in the study. The tracking of the participants was made possible by a specific code assigned to each participant to protect their privacy. At each time point, all questionnaires were administered in the same manner and at the same time to students in regular classrooms by two trained graduate assistants, with the students receiving identical verbal and written instructions. Before the questionnaire was administered, participants were informed that their responses were confidential and that the process must be completed independently, with students not communicating with each other or peeking at each other’s responses. The questionnaire should be administered in a standard examination setting, with single seating, single tables, and single rows, to ensure that participants cannot see each other’s responses even if they are sitting next to each other. Participants were allowed to take as much time as needed to complete the questionnaires, and they could stop participating at any time if they desired. We also emphasized to participants that our research team could provide professional assistance if they became distressed during the study. In addition, relevant information was provided after the study at the school-level (e.g., methods to identify students with maltreatment experiences and ways to help them) and the family-level (e.g., lectures about helping parents to identify the signs of being bullied and how to provide emotional and social support) so that the school and family could work together to prevent child maltreatment.

Participants

Convenience sampling was used in this study. Thirteen public elementary schools were randomly selected with the assistance of the local education authorities in a city located in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. These schools did not differ significantly in terms of the characteristics they shared (e.g., the quality of students, school size, class size, and teachers’ teaching ability), based on the information provided by the local education authorities. All of the students in Grade 3 and Grade 4 from these 13 schools were invited to participate, with approximately 49.4% of the participants in Grade 3 and 50.6% in Grade 4 at the start of the study. Students participated in assessments at five-time points across 3 years, using 6 month time intervals. The employment history of the participants’ parents showed that 81.67% of the fathers and 66.97% of the mothers held a stable job during the past year. Of the total 4270 students (54.9% boys; M_age= 9.92; SD = 0.51) who participated at Time 1 (T1), 3876 (90.77%) at Time 2 (T2), 3796 (88.90%) at Time 3 (T3), 3732 (87.40%) at Time 4 (T4), and 3688 (86.37%) at Time 5 (T5) of the T1 students were retained, respectively.

Attrition may be due to two reasons: Students may have transferred to another school or may have been absent from class on the day of assessment. The Missing Completely at Random (MCAR) test was conducted for all variables (Little & Rubin, 2002). This analysis of the five waves of longitudinal data revealed a normed χ²/df of 1.19, indicating the pattern of missing data was not materially different from a random pattern (Bollen, 2014). Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) was used to estimate the parameters because it uses all existing information to estimate the parameters and has been identified as the least biased method (Little & Rubin, 2002).

Measurement

Child Maltreatment in Families

Child maltreatment in families was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein et al., 2003), which includes 23 items assessing child maltreatment in families. Sample items included “people in my family said hurtful or insulting things to me.” and “I got hit or beaten so hard that it was noticed by someone like a teacher, neighbor, or doctor.” Responses ranged from 1 (never true) to 5 (very often true). The total scores were analyzed with higher scores indicating more maltreatment the children experienced. This scale has demonstrated good reliability and validity with Chinese students (Ding et al., 2017). In this study, Cronbach’s coefficients α for the CTQ were 0.83 (T1), 0.85 (T2), 0.86 (T3), 0.86 (T4), and 0.87 (T5), respectively.

In order to provide information about the prevalence of child maltreatment in the families of the Chinese children in this study, we calculated the prevalence of the above-mentioned four types of child maltreatment in families according to the cut-off scores (physical abuse ≥8; physical neglect ≥8; emotional abuse ≥9; and emotional neglect ≥10) proposed by Tietjen et al. (2010). The sensitivity and specificity of these cut-off scores reached 89 and 97%, respectively (Li & Godinet, 2014; Tietjen et al., 2010).

Psychological maltreatment by teachers

Psychological maltreatment by teachers was assessed using the Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers Scale (PMTS; Fromuth et al., 2015), which includes 10 items assessing psychological maltreatment by teachers. Sample items included specific teacher behavior such as “swore at me.” and “called me names such as stupid.” Responses ranged from 1 (Not at all) to 4 (A lot). Mean scores were analyzed with higher scores indicating more teacher maltreatment. This scale has demonstrated good reliability and validity with Chinese students (Chen et al., 2021). In this study, Cronbach’s coefficients α for the PMTS were 0.88 (T1), 0.89 (T2), 0.92 (T3), 0.93 (T4), and 0.95 (T5), respectively.

Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed using the Chinese version of the Youth Self-Report (YSR) form (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991; Su et al., 1999), which includes 17 items assessing internalizing problems and 12 items assessing externalizing problems. Sample items of internalizing problems included “Unhappy, sad, or depressed” and “Nervous or tense.” Sample items of externalizing problems included “steal things from places other than home.” and “cruelty, bullying, or meanness to others.” Responses ranged from 0 (not true) to 2 (very true or often true). Mean scores were analyzed with higher scores indicating higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems. This scale has demonstrated good reliability and validity with Chinese students (Su et al., 1999).In this study, Cronbach’s coefficients α for the internalizing problems were 0.88 (T1), 0.91 (T2), 0.91 (T3), 0.92 (T4), and 0.93 (T5), respectively; and Cronbach’s coefficients α for the externalizing problems were 0.85 (T1), 0.88 (T2), 0.86 (T3), 0.87 (T4), and 0.88 (T5), respectively.

Covariates

Several demographic covariates were reported by the students at T1, including age and socioeconomic status (SES). Father’s and mother’s education levels were used as indicators of children’s family SES separately because they reflect the most stable and common aspect of SES (see Sirin, 2005, for a review). Parental education levels were reported by the participants, including the education levels of their fathers and mothers. There were eight alternative categories from 1 (never to school) to 8 (doctoral degree).

Statistical Analyses

Preliminary Analyses

All analyses including descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations of study variables were calculated in Mplus version 8.0 using the total sample after FIML estimated missing data.

Longitudinal Measurement Invariance

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the longitudinal measurement invariance of all study variables. For more details about the tests of measurement invariance see The Preliminary Analyses in the Supplemental Materials.

Random Intercepts Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM)

The random intercepts cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) were employed in this study. RI-CLPMs were conducted following the procedures of Hamaker et al. (2015). First, each observed score was regressed on its own latent factor; factor loadings were constrained to 1. Then, the random intercepts, one for each construct, were added by regressing the constructs at each time point with factor loadings constrained to 1, and the remaining variation in the constructs represented the within-person processes, which were of main interest when testing reciprocal influences over time. In order to capture all the variation in the observed scores measured by the within-person and between-person factor structures, the variances of the observed scores were constrained to be zero. Also, the robust maximum likelihood (MLR) was used to estimate the models, taking into account the non-normal distribution of the data. For reasons of parsimony and given that there were no specific hypotheses regarding non-stationarity of the underlying within-person processes in this study, autoregressive paths or/and cross-lagged paths were constrained to be equal over time in a stepwise manner and compared with unconstrained baseline models (Orth et al., 2021). Four models were compared: First, an unconstrained model was tested in which all cross-lagged paths, autoregressive paths, and occasional covariance were freely estimated (Model a). Second, a constrained model was tested using cross-wave equality constraints on autoregressive effects (Model b). Third, a constrained model was tested using cross-wave equality constraints on cross-lagged effects (Model c). Fourth, a constrained model was tested using cross-wave equality constraints on both autoregressive and cross-lagged effects (Model d). The model fit was considered acceptable when the comparative fit index (CFI) was above 0.90, and when the Residual the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) was below 0.08 (Kline, 2010). For model comparisons, because χ² is greatly affected by the sample size, no significant difference was deemed to exist if the fit indices of ΔCFI were less than 0.01, ΔRMSEA was less than 0.015, and ΔSRMR was less than 0.030 (Chen, 2007). When the model fit was not significantly different, a more parsimonious model was retained. In order to test whether indirect effects were significant, 5000 samples were used for percentile bootstrapping. The indirect effect is statistically significant if the 95% confidence interval for the estimate excludes zero.

In this model estimated, gender, age and SES were simultaneously modeled to predict child maltreatment in families, psychological maltreatment by teachers, and internalizing and externalizing problems in the RI-CLPM at T1 and the random intercepts (see Supplement Table S4). Gender invariance was then checked for cross-lagged pathways in the final model (and correlations between random intercepts in the RI-CLPM). When the final model was estimated by gender, the two covariates of age and SES were controlled for simultaneously.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

The means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations of the study variables for the total sample are displayed in Supplement Table S1 of the Supplemental Materials.

Moreover, the average prevalence of child maltreatment in families among the 4270 children measured across the five measurement occasions was 40.3%, respectively. Moreover, 26.5% of our participants reported one or more items consistent with psychological maltreatment by teachers in the past half-year.

Longitudinal Measurement Invariance

There was strong invariance across all measures, suggesting observed changes in these constructs over time were not caused by measurement artifacts or item biases. For more details on the results of the tests of measurement invariance, see The Preliminary Analyses of the Supplemental Materials.

Model comparisons

As shown in Supplement Table S3, Models 1c and 2c were chosen as the final RI-CLPMs for child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers respectively. For more details on model fit indices and model comparisons, see The Model comparisons of the Supplemental Materials.

RI-CLPM for Child Maltreatment in Families and Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers

The results of the final RI-CLPM for child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers are summarized in Supplement Figure S1. The random intercepts of child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers were correlated (r = 0.59; p < 0.001), indicating that the between-person effects linked the stable variances among child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers. The within-person effects from child maltreatment in families at time T to psychological maltreatment by teachers at time T+1 were all statistically significant (βs = 0.06–0.08, ps < 0.001) and vice versa (βs = 0.15–0.18, ps < 0.05). Furthermore, the within-person concurrent associations between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers at each time point and the autoregressive paths of each variable were all statistically significant (see Supplement Figure S1).

RI-CLPM for Child Maltreatment in Families, Internalizing and Externalizing Problems, and Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers

Standardized cross-lagged paths, random intercepts associations, the standardized within-person concurrent associations, and autoregressive paths of the final RI-CLPM for child maltreatment in families, internalizing and externalizing problems, and psychological maltreatment by teachers are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1.

Standardized autoregressive and within-person concurrent associations coefficients for final RI-CLPM.

	T1→T2			T2→T3			T3→T4			T4→T5
	β	SE	P	β	SE	p	β	SE	P	β	SE	p
Autoregressive paths
CMF→CMF	0.06	0.02	<0.01	0.17	0.03	<0.001	0.21	0.02	<0.001	0.28	0.02	<0.001
Int→Int	0.07	0.03	<0.01	0.15	0.03	<0.001	0.22	0.03	<0.001	0.28	0.03	<0.001
Ext→Ext	0.16	0.03	<0.001	0.14	0.04	<0.01	0.16	0.05	<0.001	0.25	0.04	<0.001
PMT→PMT	0.01	0.03	0.751	0.21	0.04	<0.001	0.25	0.03	<0.001	0.36	0.03	<0.001
Within-person paths
CMF→PMT	0.07	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.01	<0.001	0.05	0.01	<0.001
PMT→CMF	0.16	0.02	<0.001	0.15	0.01	<0.001	0.16	0.02	<0.001	0.17	0.02	<0.001
CMF→Int	0.08	0.01	<0.001	0.09	0.02	<0.001	0.09	0.02	<0.001	0.08	0.02	<0.001
Int→CMF	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001
CMF→Ext	0.06	0.01	<0.001	0.08	0.02	<0.001	0.08	0.02	<0.001	0.07	0.01	<0.001
Ext→CMF	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.07	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001
PMT→Int	0.05	0.01	<0.001	0.05	0.01	<0.001	0.05	0.02	<0.001	0.05	0.02	<0.001
Int→PMT	0.03	0.02	>0.05	0.03	0.02	>0.05	0.02	0.02	>0.05	0.02	0.02	>0.05
PMT→Ext	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.07	0.02	<0.001	0.07	0.02	<0.001
Ext→PMT	0.07	0.03	<0.01	0.07	0.03	<0.01	0.05	0.02	<0.01	0.05	0.02	<0.01
Int→Ext	0.05	0.02	<0.05	0.06	0.03	<0.05	0.06	0.02	<0.05	0.05	0.02	<0.05
Ext→Int	0.07	0.02	<0.001	0.08	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001	0.06	0.02	<0.001

Note. CMF Child Maltreatment in Families, PMT Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers, Int Internalizing Problems, Ext Externalizing Problems, →Unidirectional Cross-lagged, T1–T5 represents Time 1-Time 5, respectively.

The random intercepts of all variables were correlated (rs = 0.51 to 0.79; ps < 0.001), indicating that the between-person effects linked the stable variances among child maltreatment in families, psychological maltreatment by teachers, and internalizing and externalizing problems (see Table 1). As shown in Table 1 the within-person effects from child maltreatment in families at time T to psychological maltreatment by teachers at time T+1 were all statistically significant (βs = 0.05 to 0.07, ps < 0.001), and vice versa (βs = 0.15 to 0.17, ps < 0.001); the within-person effects from child maltreatment in families at time T to internalizing problems at time T+1 were all statistically significant (βs = 0.08 to 0.09, ps < 0.001) and vice versa (βs = 0.06, ps < 0.001); the within-person effects from child maltreatment in families at time T to externalizing problems at time T+1 were all statistically significant (βs = 0.06 to 0.08, ps < 0.001) and vice versa (βs = 0.06 to 0.07, ps < 0.001); the within-person effects from psychological maltreatment by teachers at time T to internalizing problems at time T+1 were all statistically significant (βs = 0.05, ps < 0.001), but not vice versa; the within-person effects from psychological maltreatment by teachers at time T to externalizing problems at time T+1 were all statistically significant (βs = 0.06 to 0.07, ps < 0.001) and vice versa (βs = 0.05 to 0.07, ps < 0.001); and the within-person effects from internalizing problems at time T to externalizing problems at time T+1 were all statistically significant (βs = 0.05 to 0.06, ps < 0.05) and vice versa (βs = 0.06 to 0.08, ps < 0.001). A detailed description of Monte Carlo power analyses for the RI-CLPM is presented in Supplement Table S6. Furthermore, the within-person concurrent associations between child maltreatment in families, psychological maltreatment by teachers, and internalizing and externalizing problems at each time point and the autoregressive paths of each variable were all statistically significant (see Table 1). Results of the roles of control variables in the final RI-CLPM are presented in Supplement Table S4 in the Supplemental Materials.

Percentile bootstrapping analysis (see Table 2) showed that the indirect pathway from child maltreatment in families at T to psychological maltreatment by teachers at T+2 via externalizing problems at T+1 was significant (βs = 0.004, 95% CI [0.001, 0.006]). Moreover, the indirect pathway from child maltreatment in families at T to psychological maltreatment by teachers at T+3 via internalizing problems at T+1 and externalizing problems at T+2 was significant (βs = 0.00,024–0.00,027, 95% CI [0.000, 0.001]).

Table 2.

Percentile Bootstrapping analysis of the magnitude and statistical significance of indirect effects for RI-CLPM.

Indirect Pathways	Standardized	95% CI of	SE of	Total Effect	SE of	95% CI of Total Effect
Indirect Pathways	Indirect Effect	Indirect Effect	Indirect Effect	Total Effect	Total Effect	95% CI of Total Effect
T1 CM→T2 Ext→T3 PMT	0.004	0.001, 0.008	0.002	0.024	0.006	0.013, 0.035
T2 CM→T3 Ext→T4 PMT	0.004	0.001, 0.007	0.002	0.032	0.007	0.017, 0.046
T3 CM→T4 Ext→T5 PMT	0.004	0.001, 0.006	0.001	0.036	0.008	0.020, 0.052
T1 PMT→T2 Int→T3 CM	0.003	0.001, 0.006	0.001	0.036	0.008	0.021, 0.051
T1 PMT→T2 Ext→T3 CM	0.004	0.001, 0.007	0.001	0.036	0.008	0.021, 0.051
T2 PMT→T3 Int→T4 CM	0.003	0.000, 0.005	0.001	0.07	0.011	0.049, 0.091
T2 PMT→T3 Ext→T4 CM	0.004	0.001, 0.006	0.001	0.07	0.011	0.049, 0.091
T3 PMT→T4 Int→T5 CM	0.003	0.001, 0.006	0.001	0.092	0.012	0.069, 0.116
T3 PMT→T4 Ext→T5 CM	0.004	0.001, 0.007	0.001	0.092	0.012	0.069, 0.116
T1 CM→T2 Int→T3 Ext→T4 PMT	0	0.000, 0.000	0	0.009	0.003	0.004, 0.015
T2 CM→T3 Int→T4 Ext→T5 PMT	0	0.000, 0.001	0	0.017	0.004	0.009, 0.025
T1 PMT→T2 Ext→T3 Int→T4 CM	0	0.000, 0.001	0	0.013	0.004	0.006, 0.021
T2 PMT→T3 Ext→T4 Int→T5 CM	0	0.000, 0.001	0	0.035	0.007	0.022, 0.048

Reversely, the indirect pathway from psychological maltreatment by teachers at T to child maltreatment in families at T+2 via internalizing problems at T+1 was significant (βs = 0.003, 95% CI [0.001, 0.006]), and the indirect pathway from psychological maltreatment by teachers at T to child maltreatment in families at T+2 via externalizing problems at T+1 was significant (βs = 0.004, 95% CI [0.001, 0.007]). Moreover, the indirect pathway from psychological maltreatment by teachers at T to child maltreatment in families at T+3 via externalizing problems at T+1 and internalizing problems at T+2 was significant (βs = 0.00,022–0.00,029, 95% CI [0.000, 0.001]).

Gender Differences

The results of multi-group modeling analysis showed that setting the structural coefficients (i.e., autoregressive paths or cross-lagged paths or both of them) in the final RI-CLPMs (i.e., Model 1c, Model 2c) to be equal across gender did not significantly decrease the fit of the unconstrained model (see Supplement Table S5 in the Supplemental Materials). These results indicated that the final RI-CLPMs did not indicate significant gender differences.

Discussion

Based on spillover theory, this study examined whether child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers bidirectionally influenced each other directly or indirectly via internalizing and externalizing problems at the within-person level among Chinese children, using RI-CLPM.

Relations between Child Maltreatment in Families and Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers

The findings of the RI-CLPMs supported the bidirectional spillover between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers. Briefly, the results demonstrated that children who experienced more maltreatment than usual in the family subsequently suffered more psychological maltreatment by teachers, and the reverse was also the case. This result was consistent with our hypothesis and suggested that the effect might be more robust for Chinese children.

On the one hand, in the Chinese context, parents often achieve the goal of educating their children through discipline (Qiao & Chan, 2005). A well-known proverb “spare the rod, spoil the child” indicates that strict physical discipline of children achieves filial piety. If children refuse to submit to their parents’ discipline, they are regarded as lacking filial piety and may receive corporal punishment as a result. As a result of filial piety’s paramount importance in Chinese culture, it has also been used to justify harsh child discipline and even child abuse. Moreover, teachers’ beliefs in the use of punishment methods may be reinforced and encouraged by parents’ attitudes toward punishment (Khoury-Kassabri et al., 2014), which might increase children’s risk of being exposed to psychological maltreatment by teachers (Chen & Wei, 2011). On the other hand, maltreatment by teachers can also increase the risk of child maltreatment in families. This effect may be due to the fact that teachers may provide more negative feedback to parents when children have more conflictual relationships with the teachers (Westerberg et al., 2020). Negative feedback about a child could create a demand on parents and negative feelings about their parenting, contributing to stress (Westerberg et al., 2020), which increases the risk of child maltreatment in families.

Relations between Child Maltreatment in Families, Internalizing and Externalizing Problems, and Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers

The findings based upon the RI-CLPM supported indirect spillover processes from child maltreatment in families to psychological maltreatment by teachers at the within-person level. First, the RI-CLPM results revealed that child maltreatment in families indirectly affected the likelihood of psychological maltreatment by teachers via externalizing problems at the within-person level. Thus, the links between child maltreatment in families and externalizing problems can be accounted for by general strain theory, which theorizes that children who have experienced life adversity (e.g., child maltreatment in families) are more likely to develop externalizing problems, such as bullying, as they age (Agnew, 1992). In turn, externalizing problems significantly predicted psychological maltreatment by teachers, which supports a child-driven effect in which higher levels of externalizing problems (but not internalizing problems) contribute to more significant teacher–student conflict (Mejia & Hoglund, 2016; Roorda & Koomen, 2021). A child-driven effect builds on socialization theory by proposing students themselves are agents of change (McHale & Crouter, 2003; Mejia & Hoglund, 2016). In this sense, externalizing children tended to be more disruptive in class, resulting in more negative attention from teachers and the development of more negative relationships over time (Mejia & Hoglund, 2016).

Second, the RI-CLPM found that child maltreatment in families significantly predicted internalizing problems, and internalizing problems predicted externalizing problems, in turn, externalizing problems predicted psychological maltreatment by teachers at the within-person level. Thus, the findings showed that child maltreatment in families predicted internalizing problems in children. Specifically, cold and hostile parenting led to increased depressive symptoms in children. Lack of affection in the parent–child relationship may endanger children’s need to achieve a sense of belonging and might, as a result, foreshadow internalizing problems, such as depression (Roelofs et al., 2006). Moreover, this result indicated externalizing problems as the outcome of internalizing problems. Internalizing and externalizing problems commonly co-occur (Caspi & Moffitt, 2018; Shi et al., 2020; Shi & Ettekal, 2021). Based on developmental cascade models, the positive correlation between these two problems may be due to the causal role of one type of problem behavior in developing the other type of problem behavior (Masten & Cicchetti, 2010; Dodge et al., 2008). Internalizing problems tend to become more serious as children become older (Hammen & Rudolph, 2003). While influencing other areas of functioning, this increased severity of emotional dysregulation may also be linked to behavioral dysregulation and acting-out behaviors (Selby et al., 2008). Thus, internalizing problems could lead to externalizing problems, which further increase the risk of students experiencing psychological maltreatment by teachers.

The RI-CLPM results revealed that the indirect spillover process from psychological maltreatment by teachers to child maltreatment in families was significant when the mediating variables (internalizing and externalizing problems) were included. Specifically, internalizing and externalizing problems mediated the longitudinal relations from psychological maltreatment by teachers to child maltreatment in families. Thus, psychological maltreatment by teachers predicted internalizing and externalizing problems at the within-person level. This result was consistent with those of previous studies and relationship-driven models (e.g., Fromuth et al., 2015; Mejia & Hoglund, 2016); namely, that psychological maltreatment by teachers has been associated with a variety of adverse outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing problems for the children, particularly in the Chinese context. The old Chinese idiom was “once my teacher, forever my parents.” Students should treat their teachers with the same respect as their parents, displaying obedience and submission (Bear et al., 2014). Chinese students see their teachers as a secure base, and students who suffer psychological maltreatment by teachers may feel more upset and anxious and be more hostile and aggressive towards others (Doumen et al., 2011; Mejia & Hoglund, 2016; Roorda & Koomen, 2021). Moreover, our results showed that internalizing and externalizing problems significantly predicted child maltreatment in families at the within-person level. This result was consistent with those of previous studies and child-driven effects (e.g., Thornberry et al., 2014; Turner et al., 2010, Wang & Liu, 2018). Teachers’ psychological maltreatment can result in children’s sadness, anxiety, or anger, which might elicit negative responses from parents, such as withdrawal of affection or rejection. Furthermore, externalizing Chinese children are also more likely to be disciplined harshly by their parents in a context of high cultural acceptance.

Most notably, our results demonstrated that internalizing problems did not predict psychological maltreatment by teachers. In line with previous studies (e.g., Mejia & Hoglund, 2016), children who display more internalizing problems, such as sadness and anxiety, do not experience increases in teacher–child conflict. However, they may develop greater dependency on their relationships with teachers. Students who seem anxious and fearful in the classroom may receive more attention and support from teachers who interact frequently with them (Coplan & Prakash, 2003). There was also evidence that some teachers may prefer children who display internalizing problems because they find these children to be more obedient and report having closer relationships with them (Gregoriadis & Grammatikopoulos, 2014).

Strength, Limitations, and Further Research

This study demonstrated a number of major strengths compared to previous studies. First, this study thoroughly investigated the cross-domain spillover effect between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers and whether individual maladjustment symptoms (i.e., internalizing and externalizing symptoms) functioned as mediators among a large sample of Chinese children. Second, its longitudinal and multi-wave design addressed the temporal relations between child maltreatment in families, internalizing and externalizing problems, and psychological maltreatment by teachers. This study provides longitudinal evidence of bidirectional associations over a longer period of time than previous related studies based on cross-sectional designs or shorter-term longitudinal studies, increasing the opportunity to shed light on the dynamic processes involved in cross-domain spillover between family and teacher-students systems. Third, the employment of random intercept cross-lagged panel models, which is an innovative statistical approach to analyzing longitudinal data, allowed differentiation of the within-person effects from between-person effects. The within-person effects further provide more accurate insight into how child maltreatment in families, internalizing and externalizing problems, and psychological maltreatment by teachers influence each other at the level of individual children.

This study should also be considered in light of its limitations. First, data relied on self-report measures, and focused primarily on general child maltreatment in families, without specifying the various forms of maltreatment. Thus, multiple informants and methods could be utilized in future research to examine the associations between specific forms of child maltreatment in families, internalizing and externalizing problems, and psychological maltreatment by teachers. Second, the sample for the current study was drawn from elementary school students in the southeast area of China and was not representative of the population of elementary school students in China. Future studies will need to replicate and extend these findings in other areas of China and other countries. Finally, there were relatively small longitudinal effects in the current study, which should be replicated in other samples. However, because most psychological constructs show strong stability over time, the degree of change in levels of the outcome will be small, and controlling for stability effects (i.e., previous levels of constructs) often removes a large portion of the variance in the outcome that is shared with other predictors (Adachi & Willoughby, 2015). As such, excluding between-person variance can also reduce some of the variances in outcomes. In light of the controls listed above, even small effect sizes may be meaningful, and conclusions based on small effect sizes should be taken seriously as a potential target for improving and optimizing interventions to reduce the relations between child maltreatment in families, psychological maltreatment by teachers and internalizing and externalizing problems.

Conclusion

Based on spillover theory, this study examined the longitudinal relations between child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers and the mediating effects of internalizing and externalizing problems using random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling. The main results of this study revealed that child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers reciprocally influenced each other and internalizing and externalizing problems mediated the effects of child maltreatment in families on psychological maltreatment by teachers and the reverse relation at the within-person level. The results suggested that child maltreatment in families is an important predictor of psychological maltreatment by teachers and that psychological maltreatment by teachers, in turn, leads to an increase in child maltreatment in families, thus forming a vicious cycle. One of the keys to breaking such a vicious cycle is to reduce the internalizing and externalizing problems of children exposed to family and teacher adversity. Overall, in order to understand the family-teacher connection properly, it should be understood as an integrated system in which the two domains reinforce each other through children’s emotions and behavior. Thus, more comprehensive interventions that target families and teachers in an integrated manner are needed to prevent or break the self-sustaining cycle of child maltreatment in families and psychological maltreatment by teachers.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material - Longitudinal Relations Between Child Maltreatment in Families and Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers: The Mediating Roles of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among Chinese Children

Supplemental Material for Longitudinal Relations Between Child Maltreatment in Families and Psychological Maltreatment by Teachers: The Mediating Roles of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among Chinese Children by Xue Gong, E Scott Huebner, and Lili Tian in Journal of Interpersonal Violence

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 31971005, and Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, 2021A1515012515, and Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, 2022A1515011233.

Ethical Approval

The present study was approved by School of Psychology Research Ethics Committee, South China Normal University. All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

ORCID iD

Lili Tian

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Author Biographies

Xue Gong is a PhD candidate in School of Psychology at South China Normal University. Her current research interests focus on of problem behaviors, mental health, and child and adolescent development. Her research interests also include school psychology.

E. Scott Huebner, PhD, is a professor in the School Psychology Program (APA-approved program), Department of Psychology at University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. His specialty mainly focuses on school psychology. His research interests also include positive psychology, youth development, clinical psychology, and school-based mental health.

Lili Tian, PhD, is a professor and director of Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology at South China Normal University. Her main research areas are personality and social psychology, positive psychology, school psychology, youth development, and bullying and cyberbullying among children and adolescents.

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