Awareness about
Child Abuse among Care Givers and Teachers in Selected Rural Schools at
Mangalore
Savitha. A1, Nalini. M2,
Roopalatha Shetty,3 Aruni.
G3., Sukesh. P3
1Post Graduate Student, Department of Mental
Health Nursing, NUINS, Nitte University, Mangaluru, Karnataka
2HOD and Associate Professor, Department of
Mental Health Nursing, NUINS, Nitte University, Mangaluru, Karnataka
3Lecturer. Department of Mental Health
Nursing, NUINS, Nitte University, Mangaluru,
Karnataka
*Corresponding
Author Email: nalini@nitte.edu.in,
nalinipsychiatricnurse@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
Abstract:
children’s are the gift of
god; as indian society concerned that children depict
the innocence of god. Around 27 million
children are born in a year. Out of which two million of them do not live up to
the age of five in india1. Child
abuse is a terrible thing and most people are not aware about the child abuse.
According to the world health organization (who), one in every four girls and
one in every seven boys in the world are sexually abused. Objectives of the study : to
assess the level of awareness about child abuse among care givers and teachers
in selected rural schools at Mangalore. To find the association between
awareness about child abuse with selected demographic variables. Methods : a descriptive survey design
was adapted for this study. Forty four teachers and forty four caregivers were
selected by means of purposive sampling method. Demographic Performa and
awareness questionnaire were used to collect the data from the subjects. The
participants were asked to fill the demographic Performa and then proceed to
awareness questionnaire. Results : data
were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study findings
revealed that the out of forty four caregivers 2.3% (n=1) had poor awareness,
61.4% (n=27) had average awareness and 36.4% (n=16) had good awareness about
child abuse. Out of forty four teachers 59% (n=26) had average awareness and
41% (n= 18) had good awareness and none of them had poor awareness about child
abuse. Conclusion : forty four
teachers and forty four caregivers had been assessed for their level of awareness
about child abuse of these most of them had average [teachers = 26 (59.1%),
caregivers = 27 (61.4%)] and good awareness [teachers = 18 (40.9%), caregivers
= 16(36.4%)]. There was an association between awareness (caregivers) and
education status at 5% level of significance
KEYWORDS: Child abuse, awareness, caregivers,
teachers, information booklet.
INTRODUCTION:
Children’s are
the gift of God; as Indian society concerned that children depict the innocence of God. Around 27 million children
are born in a year. Out of which two million of them do not live up to the age
of five in India. Is children in India are in safe hands? If so, to what extent it is. Safeguarding the
children is everyone’s responsibility.
Largest
Percentages of children are vulnerable to one or other form of abuses.1
Child sexual abuse is becoming the major social and ethical issues. This form
of abuse is maximum inflicted by family members or other people residing in or
visiting a child's home, people whom normally trusted by the children and their
parents. Child abuse is a terrible thing and most people are not aware about
the child abuse2 . According to the World Health Organization (WHO),
one in every four girls and one in every seven boys in the world are sexually
abused3. The “Breaking the Silence-Child Sexual Abuse in India 2013”
reported that girls of 6-12years were abused by staff members, elder children
of the organization, and outside visitors .Child line Mangalore, has received
67 calls seeking protection for child abuse from September 2012 to August 2013.4The world statistics shows
that about 4 to 5 for every 10 children before attempting the age of 18 will be
exposed to one or other form of sexual abuse. A study conducted by the Ministry
of Women and Child development, UNICEF and save the children in 2007 in India
results revealed that over 53 percent of children has faced some form of sexual
abuse 5.
The sexual abuse
is taking place regardless of economic status, rural or urban, home or school
settings. Sexual abuse victim is prone to develop Physiological and
psychological problems, these problems can be prevented by taking appropriate
counseling sessions to the child and family members 6. A study
conducted by NGO Arpan period between 2007 and 2011,
results revealed that, 64 per cent of accused were father or stepfather. Most
of the cases are not reported to police and some even are not coming into
parent’s knowledge. It may be because of the child’s poor awareness about
sexual abuse.7
There are some
exceptional cases such as the girl was sexually abused by her uncle the
incident came to light by dropping the letter in box which is installed by her
school. The school promptly informed the matter to Child line and informed to
her parents and lodged a police complaint. The accused was arrested and
produced before a court. Which shows
that, how awareness and knowledge helped the Parents and teachers to identify
the victim and prevent child abuse. Parents need to be more aware about child’s
school and home environment. The education which given by the school was helped
the girl to identify child abuse. In light of above facts investigator felt
that there is a need to increase the awareness among parents, guardians and
school teachers on prevention of child abuse, and stand in a unique position to
educate and protect the children from becoming sexual victimization.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
“Awareness about
child abuse among care givers and teachers in selected rural schools at
Mangalore .
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
1.
To
assess the level of awareness about child abuse among care givers and teachers in selected rural schools at
Mangalore.
2.
To
find the association between awareness about child abuse with Selected demographic variables.
HYPOTHESES:
H1: There will
be a significant association between awareness about child abuse with selected
demographic variables.
METHODOLOGY:
Research Design: Descriptive survey approach and cross
sectional design
Settings: The present study was conducted In
selected rural schools in Mangalore
Population: In this study, the population consists of
teachers and caregivers of 1 to 5h standard children
Sample:
The sample comprised of 44
teachers and 44 caregivers of 1 to 5h standard children in selected
rural schools at Mangalore.
Sampling technique: In this study, out of 156 rural schools 7
schools were selected through simple random sampling. Non probability purposive
sampling technique was used for selecting the subjects from the schools. 44
teachers and 44 caregivers of 1 to 5th standard children in selected
rural schools at Mangalore were selected for the study.
Description
of The Tool:
Demographic Performa of caregivers consists of 8
items, and teachers 7 items respectively. This gives basic information about
caregivers and teachers. The questionnaire related to awareness was used same
for both teachers and caregivers. The questionnaire had four sections and total
of 33 items. First and second sections were true or false/ yes or no questions,
third and fourth sections were multiple choice questions. A score value of 1
was allotted to every correct response and the wrong answers had 0 score. The
maximum score was 33 and minimum score was 0 and scores were interpreted as
follows.
The scores were categorized arbitrarily as follows:
|
Level
of Awareness |
Scores |
|
Poor Awareness |
<11 |
|
Average Awareness |
12 – 22 |
|
Good Awareness |
> 23 |
DATA
COLLECTION PROCESS:
The formal
written permission was obtained from the Block Education Officer, list of rural
schools situated around Mangalore were collected from BEO’s office, in which 7
schools were selected through simple random sampling. Data were collected from November 10th 2014
to December 15th 2014. The investigator had given a brief
introduction before collecting the data. An informed consent was taken from all
the participants individually after explaining the objectives and purpose of
the study. Teachers and caregivers were explained how to fill the demographic
Performa and awareness questionnaire regarding child abuse.
RESULTS:
1. To assess the
level of awareness about child abuse among teachers and care givers in selected rural schools at
Mangalore.
Table 1: Distribution of teachers according to their
level of awareness about child abuse
n=44
|
Awareness (teachers) |
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
Poor (< 11) |
-- |
-- |
|
Average (12 to 22) |
26 |
59.1 |
|
Good (>23) |
18 |
40.9 |
|
Minimum |
Maximum |
Mean |
Standard Deviation |
|
15 |
27 |
21.91 |
3.13 |
Forty four teachers were studied. of these 59% (n=26)
had average awareness regarding child abuse and 41% (n= 18) had good awareness
regarding child abuse. None of them had poor awareness.
Table 2: Distribution of caregivers according to their
awareness level n=44
|
Awareness (Care Givers) |
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
Poor (< 11) |
1 |
2.3 |
|
Average (12to 22) |
27 |
61.4 |
|
Good (>23) |
16 |
36.4 |
|
Minimum |
Maximum |
Mean |
Standard Deviation |
|
11 |
28 |
20.79 |
4.21 |
Forty four caregivers were studied. Of these 2.3%
(n=1) had poor awareness regarding child abuse, 61.4% (n=27) had average
awareness regarding child abuse and 36.4% (n=16) had good awareness. The level
of awareness is summarized in table no 7 and figure no 2.
Table 3: comparison of teachers and caregivers level of
awareness about child abuse
|
Awareness |
Teachers (in %) |
Caregivers (in %) |
|
Poor (< 11) |
0 |
1 (2) |
|
Average (12to 22) |
26 (59) |
27 (61) |
|
Good (>23) |
18 (41) |
16 (36) |
Forty four teachers and 44 caregivers had been
assessed for their level of awareness regarding child abuse of these most of
them had average [teachers = 26 (59.1%), caregivers = 27 (61.4%)] and good
awareness [teachers = 18 (40.9%), caregivers = 16(36.4%)].
2. To find the
association between awareness about child abuse with Selected demographic variables.
Table 4: Association between teacher’s level of
awareness about child abuse and selected demographic variables n=44
|
Demographic characteristics |
Average (< 21) |
Good (>22) |
Test statistic |
P value |
|
|
Gender |
Male |
2 |
1 |
0.442 (Fishers exact) |
0.638 |
|
Female |
24 |
17 |
|||
|
Age |
21 – 30 |
12 |
9 |
1.812 (Chi-square) |
0.404 |
|
31 – 40 |
7 |
7 |
|||
|
More than 40 |
7 |
2 |
|||
|
Religion |
Hindu |
16 |
12 |
0.121 (Chi square) |
0.728 |
|
Christian |
10 |
6 |
|||
|
Marital status |
Single |
7 |
9 |
2.79 (Chi square) |
0.202 |
|
Married |
18 |
9 |
|||
|
Widow/widower |
1 |
0 |
|||
|
Experience in
teaching |
Less than 10 |
15 |
11 |
0.586 (Fishers exact) |
0.830 |
|
11 to 20 |
6 |
5 |
|||
|
More than 21 |
5 |
2 |
|||
|
Awareness
regarding CSA |
Yes |
25 |
18 |
0.591 (Fishers exact) |
0.591 |
|
No |
1 |
0 |
|||
|
Informing child
regarding CSA |
Yes |
23 |
16 |
0.366 (Fishers exact) |
0.675 |
|
No |
3 |
2 |
|||
The Chi-square value for age (calculated = 1.812 <
table value = 5.991), religion (calculated= 0.121< table value = 3.841),
marital status (calculated = 2.79 < table value = 5.991). Also the P values
for these characteristics are more than 0.05. Hence these variables are not
associated with the awareness at 5% level of significance.
Since the frequencies are very small for gender, experience in
teaching, awareness regarding child sexual abuse, informing child regarding
child sexual abuse fisher’s exact test was used and the p values for these variables
are more than 0.05 (table 7). Hence there is no association between awareness
(teachers) and these demographic variables at 5% level of significance..
Table 5: Association between caregiver’s level of
awareness about child abuse and selected demographic variable n=44
|
Demographic Characteristics |
Average (< 21) |
Good (>22) |
Fisher’s Exact Test |
P Value |
|
|
Age |
18-28 |
3 |
7 |
3.152 |
0.203 |
|
29-39 |
13 |
11 |
|||
|
Above 40 |
7 |
3 |
|||
|
Gender |
Male |
5 |
1 |
0.1001 |
0.114 |
|
Female |
18 |
20 |
|||
|
Relationship with
child |
Mother |
17 |
14 |
2.752 |
0.677 |
|
Father |
2 |
1 |
|||
|
Sister |
1 |
3 |
|||
|
Grandfather |
1 |
- |
|||
|
Aunt |
2 |
3 |
|||
|
Education |
Primary |
7 |
-- |
13.626 |
0.001* |
|
Secondary and
higher secondary |
11 |
6 |
|||
|
Graduation and
above |
5 |
15 |
|||
|
Monthly income |
<10,000 |
14 |
7 |
3.395 |
0.171 |
|
10,000to20,000 |
8 |
12 |
|||
|
>20,000 |
1 |
2 |
|||
|
Marital status |
Single |
3 |
5 |
0.203 |
0.448 |
|
Married |
20 |
16 |
|||
|
Religion |
Hindu |
16 |
12 |
2.008 |
0.342 |
|
Muslim |
1 |
-- |
|||
|
Christian |
6 |
9 |
|||
|
Number of
children at home |
1 |
4 |
5 |
2.945 |
0.739 |
|
2 |
13 |
14 |
|||
|
3 |
4 |
1 |
|||
|
4 |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
8 |
1 |
- |
|||
|
Type of family |
Nuclear |
14 |
12 |
0.382 |
0.918 |
|
Joint |
5 |
4 |
|||
|
Extended |
4 |
5 |
|||
|
Are you providing
information regarding CSA to children |
Yes |
18 |
18 |
0.252 |
0.404 |
|
No |
5 |
5 |
|||
To find the association between age, gender, relationship
with the child, education, monthly income, marital status, religion, number of
children at home, type of family and providing information regarding child
sexual abuse to children with awareness among caregivers, Fisher’s exact test
was used. The P values for these
variables are more than 0.05 (table 3) except education status (P = 0.001).
Hence there is an association between awareness (caregivers) and education
status at 5% level of significance. All other selected demographic variables
are not associated with the awareness of caregivers.
DISCUSSION:
Majority 88.6% (39) teachers were providing
information regarding CSA to children, 11.4% (5) teachers were not providing
information regarding CSA to children. A descriptive study conducted by Nadine Abrahams, Kathleen Casey,
to explore the teacher’s knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about child abuse
and its prevention. The results revealed that, majority of teachers confront
child abuse among their students, they are provided insufficient education.8
the analyzed data showed that the majority 27 (61.4%) of caregivers had average
awareness, 16 (36.4%) of caregivers had good awareness and 1 (2.3%) had poor
awareness.
A study conducted in rural areas of dindugaul district in Tamilnadu,
to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching program regarding child
abuse among mothers with under five children. The findings revealed that, 82%
of mother’s had inadequate knowledge and 18% of mother’s had adequate knowledge9.
A study conducted by Bilu
Alice at Mangalore on assessing the awareness of mothers regarding child abuse.
The findings revealed that majority of mothers (64%) had average level of
awareness, 14% of mothers had good level of awareness and 22% of mothers had
poor level of awareness10.On the basis of this present study finding
no previous research findings were reported.
In present study Forty four caregivers were studied.
Of these 2.3% (n=1) had poor awareness regarding CSA, 61.4% (n=27) had average
awareness regarding CSA and 36.4% (n=16) had good awareness. Hence there is an
association between awareness (caregivers) and education status at 5% level of
significance.
The research findings were supported by a quantitative study was conducted in Perungudi, Chennai, to assess the awareness level of the
mothers regarding child abuse and neglect. Findings revealed that, 4 (8%) women
had adequate awareness, 13 (26%) women had moderately adequate awareness and 35
(70%) women had inadequate awareness11.
There was an association found
between the knowledge level and educational status at 0.5 % level on chi square
test. The awareness of the mother regarding child abuse and neglect is very
low.
LIMITATIONS:
§ The present study was limited to teachers
and caregivers of 1 to 5th standard children, who are willing to
participate and are available during study in rural community setting.
§ A structured awareness questionnaire was
used for data collection which restricts the amount of information that can be
obtained from the respondents.
§ No standardized tool were used for the
study
RECOMMENDATIONS:
§ A similar study can be under taken on large
scale.
§ An interventional study can be conducted on
child abuse among teachers.
§ An interventional study can be conducted to
increase the awareness of school children about child abuse.
§ A descriptive study can be conducted to
assess the need of child abuse awareness program at schools.
§ Longitudinal studies can be conducted to
determine the constant effectiveness of awareness program over a period of
time.
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Received on 14.12.2015 Modified on 25.12.2015
Accepted on 06.01.2016 © A&V Publications all right reserved
Asian J. Nur. Edu. and Research.2016; 6(4): 476-480.
DOI: 10.5958/2349-2996.2016.00089.6