Volume 26, Issue 120, February 2022

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards child abuse among the general population in Saudi Arabia

Muhammad Noman Saeed¹, Turki Mohammed Alhasani², Jawaher Mohammed Hassan Al-Ruwaili³, Naif Mousa Alshaeri⁴, Saad Fareed Gandurah⁵, Abdulmohsen Khalid Alswayed⁶, Khalid Mohammed Saad Al-Qahtani⁷, Maha Safar Althuwaybi⁸, Abdalla Mohamed Bakr Ali⁹

¹Consultant of Pediatrics, Prince Sultan Military Hospital, Taif, KSA
²Alqunfudah Medical College, Umm Al Qura University, KSA
³College of Medicine, Northern Border University, KSA
⁴Alqunfudah Medical College, Umm Al Qura University, KSA
⁵Pediatric resident, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
⁶College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, KSA
⁷College of Medicine, King Khalid University, KSA
⁸Collegeof Medicine, Taif University, KSA
⁹Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Background: Child abuse encompasses a wide range of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as negligence in child care, all of which can have a severe impact on a child's health and development. The purpose of this study is to assess the population's knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours about child abuse in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in Saudi Arabia between July and August 2021. This study covers the general population of Saudi Arabia. Online self-completed questionnaires are distributed on social media. The questionnaire has been revised and translated. The questionnaire consists of 16 questions/questions to evaluate knowledge (8), attitude (3), and practice (5) in addition to sociodemographic data. Scores are analysed according to a normal distribution. Results: Our study included 499 individuals, 33.1 % of whom were between the ages of 18 and 25, and 45.3 % of whom were female. Knowledge, attitude, and practise mean (SD) scores were 71.9 ± 28.1, 46.8 ± 34.8 and 70.1 ± 34.8, respectively. Knowledge, attitudes, and practice are all associated with age (P = 0.050). Knowledge (P = 0.001) and practice (P = 0.000) were both significantly related to marital status. Knowledge and practice are strongly associated with having children (P = 0.000). Conclusion: Attitudes of the Saudi Arabian population towards child abuse were low relative to knowledge and practices. To reduce the incidence of child abuse in society, more efforts are needed to improve knowledge, attitudes and practices about child abuse.

Keywords: Child abuse; KAP; Saudi Arabia; Psychiatry

Medical Science, 2022, 26, ms54e1998

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v26i120/ms54e1998

Published: : 02 February 2022