Risk factors in Child Abuse: the role of psychological, social and demographic factors

Aim and

Child abuse is one of the most prevalent and complex psycho-social issues in the society, with serious emotional and behavioral outcomes both in childhood and adulthood. It can be viewed from various perspectives including social/cultural factors impacting the family unit and those associated with individual parents or the family as a social system. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of psychological, social, and demographic factors in child abuse.Methods and Materials: In this descriptive causal-comparative study, 130 abused high school students who attended counseling centers and Alzahra Hospital with accessible sampling and 130 non-abused from 5 section of educational system in Isfahan city via random cluster sampling method were selected according to the cut-off point of self-report child abuse scale. Their parents were also asked to complete demographic questionnaires and SCL90 inventories. Applying Pearson correlation, simultaneous regression, the collected data were analyzed using the SPSS18 software package.

The results indicated that child’s gender, divorce, and presence of a stepmother as well as mother’s aggressiveness, and paranoid thoughts were correlated with child abuse (p≤ 0.001). Furthermore, regression analysis also revealed that aggressiveness, divorce, mother’s job,and child’s gender can predict child abuse.

Multiple factors may contribute to increasing the risk of child abuse. Gaining an understanding of these factors can prove helpful in developing effective intervention strategies.