Parents' Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Child Sexual Abuse of Primary School Children in Ahvaz

Gholami, Nasibeh; Javadifar, Nahid; Haghighizadeh, Mohammad Hossein; Javadnoori, Mojgan

doi:10.22087/ijac.2024.452431.1009

Parents' Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Child Sexual Abuse of Primary School Children in Ahvaz

Document Type : Research

Authors

Nasibeh Gholami ¹

Nahid Javadifar ²

Mohammad Hossein Haghighizadeh ³

Mojgan Javadnoori ²

¹ Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ahvaz Jundishapur Unerversity of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

² Reproductive Health Promotion Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

³ School of Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.

10.22087/ijac.2024.452431.1009

Abstract

Child sexual abuse is the most tragic form of child maltreatment, a problem that affects all societies and results in both short-term and long-term physical, emotional, behavioral, social, and psychological consequences for the victims. There is a scarcity of data regarding the knowledge, attitude, and practice of Iranian parents in relation to child sexual abuse. This study was conducted in 2022 to examine the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of parents regarding the sexual abuse of primary school children. This descriptive-analytical investigation was implemented on 423 parents of primary school students in the Iranian city of Ahvaz. The data was gathered using a demographic checklist and the Persian variant of the questionnaire on the knowledge, attitude, and practice of parents in preventing the sexual exploitation of children. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, and analysis of variance in SPSS software version 23. Results showed 24.6% of parents exhibited inadequate knowledge, 28.4% demonstrated a negative attitude, and 44.4% shown poor practice. The level of parents' knowledge demonstrated a substantial correlation with their employment position, economic status, and level of education (P=0.001). Parental practice exhibited little correlation with demographic variables. While the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of the majority of parents are generally commendable, some attitudes and particularly the practice of certain parents are concerning and suboptimal. Parental and self-education is utterly essential to prevent the sexual abuse of children

Keywords

Sexual abuse

Knowledge

Attitude, Practice

Parents

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