The Impact of the COVID-19 on Physical Violence, Sexual Violence and Neglect Against Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 caused the interruption of child protection services and economic/psychological burdens on parents. Therefore, in this systematic review and meta-analysis (SR/MA), we aimed to identify the impact of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic on physical and sexual violence and neglect against children by investigating the change in the prevalence of these events before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

The protocol of this study was registered in PROSPERO with the registration number CRD42022377660. We included any studies eligible for meta-analysis comparing physical and sexual violence and neglect against children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eleven electronic databases were systematically searched in March 2022. The meta-analysis was conducted using STATA, pooled odds ratios were calculated and subgroups by countries and sex of children (when possible) were analysed.

RESULTS

A total of 11 publications were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, we found no significant evidence to support that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the prevalence or proportion of the three types of violence against children, even after segregating the data to the country or sex levels.

CONCLUSION

Overall, our analysis revealed no significant change in physical and sexual violence, as well as neglect against children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the majority of data sources being hospital records and child protection services. More self-reported studies should be performed, especially in low- and middle-income countries, for a better understanding of child abuse and neglect around the world.