Prevalence, Pattern of Child Abuse and Factors Influencing Child Physical Abuse among Working Class Parents in Samaru, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Child abuse by parents and guardians is a recognised public health and social problem both in developed and developing countries. Support, monitoring and discipline are central dimensions of parental behaviour that are linked with children's adjustment, development and well-being. Abused against children is rampant though underreported in Nigeria which may either due to the cultural justification of certain forms of abuse or reluctance of the children to speak about it from the fear of their assailant's threat or reaction of their parents. The study aims to assess the prevalence, forms of child abuse and factors influencing child physical abuse among working class parents.
Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study carried out among 129 working parents in Samaru, Zaria in 2016 using pretested, semi-structured and interviewer-administered questionnaires. The subjects were selected by multistage sampling method. Data analysed using IBM SPSS version 21.
Results: The prevalence of child abuse among working class parents was 42.6%. Multi-forms of child abuse in this study were found among the respondent. Educational level, nature of family, number of children and family size were statistically significantly associated (p=0.001, 0.001, 0.003 and 0.008) with child physical abuse with the statistically respectively.
Conclusion: Child abuse was found to be prevalent among the working class parents despite parental educational status and socio-economic background. Factors associated with child physical abuse like family size and nature of family have statistical significance (p value < 0.05). There is urgent need for community-based educational programmes to increase awareness of the problem and action on changing parental attitudes and behaviour might also help to prevent this societal menace.