Determinants of Psychological Aggression towards Children in Bangladesh: Evidence from the Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: Psychological aggression is harmful at the early stage of children and, as such, is being concerned by a growing number of countries, including Bangladesh. This study examines the factors associated with psychological aggression towards children aged 5-12 years in Bangladesh. Methods : This cross-sectional study extracted data on 12,018 children aged 5-12 years from the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019. The exposure variables comprised selected socio-demographic characteristics, while the outcome variable was psychological aggression toward children. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the associations between the independent and dependent variables. Results : The study revealed that the majority of children (89.8%) aged 5-8 years had experienced some form of psychological aggression. Notably, 93.4% of parents believed that punishment is necessary for the proper development of their children. The findings indicated that a child’s age, sex, region, education level, functional difficulty, exposure to physical punishment, mother’s education, ethnicity, economic status, number of under-five children, presence of children aged 5-17 years, and parental belief in child punishment were significantly associated with psychological aggression. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that children whose parents believed in punishment had 1.82 times higher odds of experiencing psychological aggression. In addition, region, child functional difficulty, physical punishment, mother’s education, ethnicity, having three or more children aged 5-17 years, and parental belief remained significant determinants of psychological aggression. Conclusions : Nearly nine out of ten children aged 5-8 years experienced some form of psychological aggression, strongly linked to physical punishment and parental beliefs in the necessity of punishment. Additionally, region, child functional difficulties, mother’s education, ethnicity, and having more children were significant determinants of psychological aggression towards children. These findings highlight the need for interventions promoting positive parenting and strengthened child protection to reduce harmful disciplinary practices.