The aim of this research was to identify prevalence/year and risk factors associated with victimization by caregivers in a national sample of Chilean children and adolescents. The findings show that the prevalence of victimization by caregivers was 34.7%, which is a higher figure if we consider other studies performed in developed countries with a similar methodology and with the same measurement instrument [10, 13], for instance in Spain [18], the United States [9] or the United Kingdom [49].

The same tendency is repeated when the types of victimization by caregivers are analyzed in detail. In the present study, psychological/emotional abuse was reported by 27.9% of the participants, physical abuse by 12.9%, neglect by 5.3%, and parental interference by 3.5%; all these figures surpass the values reported in research from some developed countries [9, 18, 49] (Table 2 shows the prevalence (12 months) of victimization by caregivers). Comparing these results with those from other Latin American countries, such as Mexico, where two studies have been carried out using the same approach [20, 21], the figures are divergent. For example, in the case of physical abuse, the data from the Chilean study are higher than those of one of the Mexican studies [21] but lower than those of the second study [20]. It should be emphasized that both studies were conducted in two different regions of Mexico. Psychological/emotional abuse in the present study was significantly higher than in both Mexican studies, as was neglect. Regarding the prevalence of parental interference reported by the Chilean sample, these are slightly higher than in the study by Méndez-López and Pereda [21] but lower than in the study by Peña Cárdenas, Pinto Cortez [20].

Comparing the figures obtained with previous Chilean studies on caregiver victimization, we found different results. For example, the study of UNICEF [50] reported a much higher prevalence of victimization by caregivers, for example, 65.1% of physical violence by caregivers and 56.1% of psychological violence. Although these data could be viewed positively, as they could be interpreted as a decrease in victimization by caregivers in Chile, they should be analyzed with caution. In particular, the UNICEF study assessed only two forms of victimization by caregivers, physical and psychological violence. Each type of violence was assessed with three and four sub-items, respectively.

Some items were confusing, and it was not entirely clear whether they belonged to other types of victimization; an example is "Threatened them with using or has used a gun, knife or other weapons against them," where the assessment of two types of victimization seems to be included. In contrast, items of mild physical violence "Slapped him/her or threw things that could hurt them" and in the same construct "Slapped or spanked them" are included. These are very difficult items to differentiate if they are assessing the same thing or not.

There are also other issues to care for, such as the characteristics (only eighth-grade students were evaluated) and the size of the sample (N = 1555), which could have impacted the results. Notwithstanding the possible methodological differences and their possible influence on the results, both our study as well as the study of UNICEF [50] highlight the large proportion of Chilean children and adolescents affected by caregiver victimization. Given that Chile is currently part of the OECD, where the main developed and developing countries participate, this is relevant, as Chile aspires to position itself as a country that endeavors to reduce opportunity gaps, paying particular attention to the development of effective public policies for the care, education and child protection [54].

However, and in light of the results, it is necessary to go deeper into these issues and analyze the extent to which public policies for the protection of children are producing results or not. It is imperative to consider whether these high figures (in comparison with other countries) are due to aspects related to prevention, such as greater visibility of abuse, as shown in official reports [55]. Undoubtedly, by itself, this would be a positive development.

A worrying statistic was the prevalence of emotional/psychological abuse in the national sample, which is the highest type of violence committed compared to the other types of victimization by caregivers. These results align with what has been previously stated regarding violence against children as a complex social phenomenon that persists in various forms in Latin American countries [3, 19, 46] and specifically in Chile [24, 45]. These findings are directly related to preliminary national studies with non-probabilistic samples that report psychological/emotional abuse as the most recurrent in the Chilean population in similar age ranges, although at different times [45, 56]. These results could be related to the current barriers preventing physical abuse of children and adolescents, mainly because of the physical repercussions it generates, which are visible and therefore alarm people who interact with children at an early stage, but psychological abuse continues to be invisible and naturalized in the name of punishment or parenting practices.

One crucial factor in the prevalence of victimization by caregivers is gender. Studies by Fite, Williford [23] and Hunnicutt [57] suggest that women suffer different types of violence because we live in modern societies that are structurally sexist or essentially patriarchal, factors that are firmly rooted within families. These findings are consistent with those of the present study, in which the female sex is found to be a risk factor for all types of victimization by caregivers.

In relation whit age the results showed the highest mean score of victimization by caregivers at 14 and 15 years old. This is coherent with the developmental perspective that highlights that puberty, and the associated changes may be a source of conflict between child and caregiver that could explain the highest scores in 14 and 15 years old [58, 59]. This idea should be explored in future studies since analysing each form of victimization by caregivers separately, the regression analysis shows a differentiator role of age in the same way as a previous study [25] that points out that younger children are more vulnerable to physical abuse, while, as age increases, they suffer more from emotional/psychological abuse or neglect or even more of the types of victimization by caregivers. Coinciding with the findings of this study and because of the fact that in the pre-adolescent stage they develop better physical capacities that would allow them to stop or defend themselves from physical abuse [20], and out of fear too, parents tend to use psychological violence. The vulnerability to the combined action of multiple types of violence could be explained by the scarce parental tools that caregivers have, which are essential to accompany the process of childhood, preadolescence, and adolescence, in which different changes occur at the biological, cognitive, and emotional levels [60].

Regarding the question of whether the type of educational establishment, private, public, or semi-private, constituted a risk of victimization by caregivers, a statistical significance was found between private establishments and the probability of occurrence of physical maltreatment and semi-private establishments as a risk factor for psychological maltreatment. In Chile, the type of educational establishment has generally been linked to the socioeconomic level of the families. That is, families that keep their children in private schools may have higher incomes, compared to families with a medium or low socioeconomic level, who generally choose to enroll in semi-private or public schools, respectively. In this sense, our findings are contrary to the literature that has related a higher frequency of victimization by caregivers at lower socioeconomic levels [61]. In this area, a plausible explanation is in line with some research that suggests that physical abuse is more frequent in wealthier families, given that in these families there are greater expectations of their children, and therefore greater pressure is exerted from an authoritarian parenting style [62]. However, in the case of psychological mistreatment in semi-private schools, this could be explained by the family stress model [63], which indicates that insecurities or economic instability exert pressure on families, leading to increased stress and mental health difficulties for caregivers, which could be related to a greater probability of psychological mistreatment [64]. Economic instability and insecurity is a deep-rooted characteristic of Chilean middle-class families, given that they must deal with the structural inequalities at the socioeconomic level prevailing in the country, so a higher level of indebtedness is to be expected in order to maintain their social status, in key areas such as education, health and food [65], elements that could increase family stress.

As for situational and community factors, significantly, children and young people living in the large urban metropolitan area were more vulnerable to physical abuse, psychological abuse, and parental interference. Our results are consistent with previous studies that point to urbanity as a risk factor [33]; however, they differ from studies that argue that rurality is a risk factor for victimization by caregivers [34]. The high frequency of interpersonal violence in urban Latin American areas, and especially within families and caregiving relationships, could be related to (1) macro-social factors such as social inequality due to increased wealth and poverty, the paradox of higher educational level but lower employment opportunities, increased expectations and the impossibility of meeting them, changes in the family and the loss of religion/spirituality/social support in people's lives; (2) meso-social the increase of density in poor areas and urban segregation; (3) micro-social such as alcohol consumption and the difficulty of verbal expression of people's feelings [66].

Ethnic group identification has been considered as a risk factor for victimization by caregivers [6]. Along these lines, we found in the present study that belonging to an ethnic group is a risk factor for physical abuse. Nevertheless, these results should be considered with caution as it is highly probable that ethnicity interacts with other underlying risk factors such as socio-economic status or migrant status, a situation that has been shown in previous studies as well [35, 36, 67] and needs to be explored in depth in the future, particularly in the Latin American context where it has been scarcely explored.

The variable of migrant status alone was associated with parental interference as a risk factor in the present study. Moreover, our results align with previous research, indicating that this form of victimization could even involve relocating a child to another country, region, or state [68].

Regarding disability, the findings indicate that people with disabilities are more likely to suffer the four types of victimization by caregivers. These results coincide with a broader line of research that supports the relationship between disability, physical abuse [69], and psychological abuse [70] and presents new data on parental interference, particularly in the Chilean context, and can be considered in future studies.

This research has followed a rigorous procedure from design to analysis. Still, it is important to point out some limitations. It represents only Chilean children and adolescents in school, even though Chile has a high rate of home schooling among children and adolescents. It is known that a considerable proportion of Chilean children and adolescents are not enrolled in school and, therefore, it could be expected that these adolescents are exposed to multiple forms of violence, including victimization by caregivers. Consequently, the non-inclusion of this population is a limitation of the study. The cross-sectional nature of the design means that no causal association can be attributed to the events studied. It also should be stressed that the data are subject to the limitations of any study based on self-reporting.