Knowledge regarding prevention of child abuse among parents at selected rural area of Western Rajasthan

INTRODUCTION

Child abuse is a kind of domestic violence that involves all forms of physical, emotional and sexual maltreatment and negligence of children under the age of 18 which potentially or actually damages all aspects of their health. There are some children who may be unaware that they are victims of child abuse. The prevalence of sexual and physical child abuse has respectively been estimated to be about 4 per 1000, 3 per 1000 cases.¹ Crime against children in India has increased by 11% between 2015 and 2016. According to latest data released by NCRB (National Crime Record Bureau) the total number of crime against children reported in 2016 was 106958, while 94172 crimes were recorded in 2015.² According to WHO (2014) about 80 percent of the abuse cases involve at least one parent as a perpetrator. More than 1500 children die annually because of the abuse and neglect; about 70 percent of them are under two years of age.³

In Rajasthan, the home department stated that a total of 5913 cases of rape, sexual harassment and murder were registered under the POSCO Act between January 2015 and December 2017. Alwar reported most rape cases (85) followed by Udaipur (75), and Jaipur rural (65). Barmer had the most murder cases at 6. Sriganganagar had the highest number of sexual harassment cases at 39. Hanumangarh, Sriganganagar and Jodhpur reported 3 cases of murder.⁴ Shocking report revealed that in Rajasthan a minimum of one child is sexually harassed daily. Sexual crimes against children are on a steady rise in Rajasthan in July 2016, with over 250 cases reported in the first six months. In the last three years, 56 cases of sexual violence against girl’s by teachers in schools have been registered in the state in April 2017.⁵

Today, preventing child abuse is proposed as a health priority in different countries owing to its widespread risk factors and profound effects it exerts on the growth and development of children, families and society. Different factors are associated with this phenomenon, including drug use, the psychological status and the education level of parents, family conflicts, residential area (rural and suburban versus urban settlement), knowledge deficits associated with child growth and development, as well as attitudes towards education. Parents normally tend to be perfect and are concerned about their child development; however, they sometimes give themselves the right to punish their children in whatever manner they prefer and cause the most common type of domestic violence, i.e. child abuse.⁶

METHODS

A descriptive survey research was conducted at Dhawa, Jodhpur. Dhawa is a small village with a population of 4988 and is 40 km away from Jodhpur. The study population comprised of parents of children under 18 years of age. A sample of 60 parents were selected by non-probability purposive sampling technique. The sample size of this study was calculated as 60, by using pilot study 4% good knowledge on child abuse, with 95% set interval and 5% confidence interval. Parents of children (0-18) years who are willing to participate, able to understand Hindi and available at the time of data collection were included.

The data collection procedure was carried out in the month of March to April 2019. Data were collected by an interview technique. A self-structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge regarding prevention of child abuse. The self-structured tool which was used in the study comprised of two parts. Part 1 consisted of 11 items regarding age of parents, education qualification of parents, occupation of parents, monthly income, type of family, religion etc. Part 2 consisted of 35 items to assess the knowledge regarding prevention of child abuse. One mark was given for each correct answer and zero for each incorrect or the unanswered item. Scores of knowledge were categorized into 3 levels: excellent, good, fair, and poor. Out of a total score of 35, a score greater than 70% considered as excellent knowledge, 51-70% considered as good knowledge, 40-50% considered as fair knowledge, <40% considered as poor knowledge.

The descriptive as well as inferential statistics were used to achieve the objectives of the study. Demographic data were analyzed in terms of frequencies and percentages. Chi square test was used to find the association between socio demographic variable and health seeking behavior. The reliability for the self-structured tool was found to be 0.72 (acceptability range was 0.70 to 1).

RESULTS

The data was collected from sixty residents by using self-structured tool that consisted of personal variables and knowledge questionnaire to assess the knowledge regarding prevention of child abuse among parents at selected rural area of Jodhpur Dhawa. Data was tabulated and summarized in micro excel sheets. Data was analyzed and interpreted by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Significance was checked at p value <0.05.

Table 1 represent the frequency and percentage distribution of parents by age, gender, religion, occupation, qualification, monthly income and source of information.

Note: * The Chi-square statistic is significant at the 0.05 level.

Table 1 depicts that the majority of parents belongs to age group 21 to 40 years (50% of fathers and 90% of mothers), have no formal education (50% of fathers and 85% of mothers), are farmers (73%) father and 98% mothers), (83.3%) earn 10,000 as monthly salary, have nuclear type of family (65%), belongs to Hindu religion (95%), having 3-4 children (75%), living with their parents (86%). Major source of information is mass media.

Table 2 shows mean knowledge score and standard deviation. Mean knowledge score was found to be 16.07 and standard deviation was 3.52.

Table 2 showed that only 1.66% parents had excellent level of knowledge, 39% had good knowledge and 60% had poor or fair level of knowledge regarding prevention of child abuse.

Table 3 shows association between level of knowledge and selected demographic variables. It depicts that there is association between the age of mother and level of knowledge.

DISCUSSION

The present study findings revealed that only 1.66% of them having excellent knowledge, 39% of them having good knowledge, 33.3% of them having fair knowledge and 26.6% of them having poor level of knowledge. Similarly, Gurung et al conducted a study on knowledge of child abuse among parents in Kathmandu, Nepal. The findings were 50.5% had good knowledge, 48.4% had average knowledge and only 1% had poor knowledge⁷. Singh et al, conducted a study on knowledge regarding child abuse in selected residential areas of Delhi NCR on 100 mothers and children of age 1-14 years. The results showed that most of the mothers 60% had good level of knowledge, 37% of them had average knowledge and only 3% of mothers had poor level of knowledge.⁸

Devi et al study stated no association between knowledge score when compared to age, sex, occupation, religion, socio-economic status, parental status, previous source of knowledge expect education status. It reveals that maximum demographic variables of the parents do not affected level of knowledge expect education status.⁹ Daral et al, who conducted a study on prevalence and determinants of child abuse among school going girls in Delhi. The result showed that education level of father was significant associated with the level of knowledge regarding prevention of child abuse χ² =2.578, p=0.001. Statistically significant association found between the level of knowledge with education of mothers and family monthly income at p<0.05 level of significance.¹⁰ However, in the present study findings revealed that there is a significant association between knowledge regarding prevention child abuse and age of mother (χ²=8.636, p=0.02).

The present study is limited with a single rural setting and most informants were mothers. This study included a small sample of women; hence, the findings cannot necessarily be generalized.

CONCLUSION

The finding of the study concluded that the knowledge regarding child abuse among parents was inadequate. Considering this aspects further awareness drives can be conducted to make the people alert about child abuse and its prevention.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the participants for their continuous support with interest for the study.

Funding: No funding sources

Conflict of interest: None declared

Ethical approval: Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur

REFERENCES

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