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The Covid-19 pandemic has been profoundly affecting nearly everybody, but families with minors have been hit particularly. Closure of schools and kindergartens, home schooling, and working from home have led to a profound upheaval in family life. Parental adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are an important determinant for parenting behavior. Importantly, ACEs can increase the vulnerability to stress and impair coping strategies. The current pandemic leads to increased parental stress, a risk factor for harsh parenting behavior, Therefore, we aimed to assess the role of ACEs and sociodemographic factors associated to parental coping during the current pandemic. In a cross-sectional online survey, 687 parents of minors in Germany were included. Demographic and psychosocial factors associated to parental coping during the first lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic were assessed. Results show that younger age of the respective child, income loss, dissatisfaction with the sharing of childcare duties, and ACEs were significantly associated with an increase of potential harmful parenting behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic. An increase of dissatisfaction with the sharing of childcare duties during the pandemic was predicted by working from home and taking care of the children mainly by oneself, while sharing childcare duties with the partner equally resulted even in an increase of satisfaction with sharing of childcare duties during the pandemic. These findings demonstrate that a history of childhood adversity in a parent is a risk factor for harmful parenting during the pandemic. Parental satisfaction with sharing of caregiving is an important factor for parental coping during the pandemic. Sharing of caregiving between partners should be encouraged., publishedVersion

Background: International studies show that child maltreatment is a widespread but often underestimated problem that causes high individual, social and economic costs. Child maltreatment is an important topic for the medical sector as well. On the one hand, affected persons often seek support and help from healthcare professionals, but on the other hand, assaults can also occur in medical institutions by healthcare professionals. Surprisingly, there is hardly any data on the frequency of child maltreatment by healthcare professionals in general and particularly by nursing staff. Methods: Therefore, in a large representative survey of the German population of 2,516 subjects aged between 14 and 91, the experience of child maltreatment in medical institutions by nursing staff was assessed retrospectively. Results: Of the 46 subjects who had an inpatient stay in a child and adolescent psychiatry before the age of 18, 33.3% reported to have experienced maltreatment by nursing staff, while 17.3% of the 474 persons who had an inpatient stay in general or pediatric hospitals experienced maltreatment by nursing staff. All forms of maltreatment were significantly more frequent in psychiatric compared to general and pediatric hospitals. Conclusions: The results of our representative retrospective survey demonstrate that maltreatment by nursing staff are not rare individual cases, but that medical facilities bear systemic risks for assault. Therefore, it is necessary that all medical institutions, in particular psychiatric hospitals, address this issue. In order to reduce the risk for assaults, it is important not only to implement structural measures but also to develop an attitude that emphasizes zero tolerance for violence against children and adolescents., publishedVersion