Child Abuse and School Violence among Preparatory School Children in Assiut Governorate
Abstract:
Child abuse is a major pediatric problem with deleterious short and long term effects that
last into adulthood. The World Health Organization estimates that 40 million children aged below
15 years fall victims to violence each year, even though abused children tend to keep quiet, rather
than reporting it. The phenomenon of widespread violence among schoolchildren becomes an
issue that generates enormous public concern and has become a focus of prevention in nursing.
Besides, every child has a right to be protected from harm and to feel safe and secure in an
education environment. The aim of this study is to detect child abuse and school violence among
preparatory Schoolchildren in Assiut Governorate. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used
in carrying out this study. This study was carried out in (4) districts of Assiut governorate; Assiut
and Manflot (North Assiut), El-fath (East Assiut), and El-Ghanyiem (South Assiut) districts which
were selected randomly from a list of geographical districts to constitute Assiut governorate. The
main city and one village were selected randomly from each of the selected districts; the total
sample size was 1247 preparatory students from first, second, and third grade, of both sexes and
their age ranged between 13 to 15 years old recruited through the multi- stage random sampling
technique. Data were collected during the period from the beginning of November 2013 to the
end of April 2014 through using the following tools: 1) - A simple questionnaire which was
developed by the researcher to collect relevant information and 2)-A child abuse scale which was
adapted from El-bheary and Abodeef Child abuse scale (2003) to assess the types and severity of
child abuse. The results of this study revealed that, the majority (88.5%) of the studied children
was subjected to mild sexual abuse, followed by mild physical abuse (81.6 %), followed by less
than two thirds (63%) of them faced mild emotional abuse while about one third of them suffered
of moderate emotional abuse and only a small percentage (3.4%, 3.3%, 2.6%) experienced severe
emotional, physical or sexual abuse at schools respectively. Highly statistically significant
differences were found between the exposure of studied children to physical abuse, emotional
abuse, sexual abuse, their and their parents’ characteristics, and their gender, grade level in
preparatory schools, birth order, their mothers’ occupation and family size. The present study
concluded that, preparatory school children in Assiut Governorate were subjected to different
forms of mild violence at schools in both urban and rural areas that all schools need to pay
attention to. Unfortunately, mild sexual abuse was the most prevalent form of violence among
studied children in preparatory schools. Girls tend to be the main victims of all types of violence at
schools. Some characteristics of studied children and their parents were associated significantly
with all types of abuse. Large family size (more than 6 members) was foremost associated
significantly with all types of abuse. The study recommended close supervision of the students at
schools, especially girls, and developing an extensive afterschool program, such as different
sports, club and social activities.
Key Words: Child abuse, School violence, Child right
