Alsalman Zaenb, Turkistani Jamela, Bohamad Abdullah, Alkhalaf Abdullah, Almukhtar Mohammed, Alkhalaf Reda, Alkhalaf Basem
Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi J Med Med Sci. 2023 Jul-Sep;11(3):235-241. doi: 10.4103/sjmms.sjmms_125_23. Epub 2023 Jul 15.
Child maltreatment is a crucial issue worldwide that has negative consequences for children and their families. Inability to distinguish between traditional corporal punishment and abuse is part of the problem.
To assess parents' knowledge and perception of child maltreatment and investigate the factors that influence their awareness.
This cross-sectional study recruited parents with at least one child aged <18 years. Data were collected using a self-administrated online questionnaire. Participants were categorized into two groups based on the median knowledge score.
A total of 447 participants completed the questionnaire, of which 62% were female and the average age was 37 years. Almost two-thirds of the respondents (60.6%) consider child abuse and neglect (CAN) to be a common problem in Saudi Arabia. Only 53% had good knowledge of CAN, and more than one-third were unaware of the hotline number available to report any CAN. Almost half of the participants did not consider refusing childhood immunization or smoking in front of children to be a form of CAN. Logistic regression showed that higher education and family income levels were significantly associated with good knowledge ( = 0.013 and 0.003, respectively).
While most parents consider CAN to be a common problem in Saudi Arabia, they do not have adequate knowledge of what constitutes emotional abuse and neglect. These findings highlight the need for community-based education programs to increase parents and caregivers' awareness of child rights.
儿童虐待是一个全球性的关键问题，对儿童及其家庭会产生负面影响。无法区分传统体罚和虐待是问题的一部分。
评估家长对儿童虐待的认知和看法，并调查影响他们认知的因素。
这项横断面研究招募了至少有一个18岁以下孩子的家长。数据通过自行填写的在线问卷收集。参与者根据知识得分中位数分为两组。
共有447名参与者完成了问卷，其中62%为女性，平均年龄为37岁。近三分之二的受访者（60.6%）认为虐待和忽视儿童（CAN）在沙特阿拉伯是一个普遍问题。只有53%的人对CAN有充分的了解，超过三分之一的人不知道可用于报告任何CAN的热线电话。近一半的参与者不认为拒绝儿童免疫接种或在孩子面前吸烟是一种CAN形式。逻辑回归显示，高等教育和家庭收入水平与充分的认知显著相关（分别为 = 0.013和0.003）。
虽然大多数家长认为CAN在沙特阿拉伯是一个普遍问题，但他们对构成情感虐待和忽视的行为没有足够的了解。这些发现凸显了开展基于社区的教育项目以提高家长和照顾者对儿童权利认识的必要性。
