Prevalence of child abuse and its relationship with parenting styles among Sanandaj primary school children, in 2016-2017

Child abuse can cause psychological and delinquent and antisocial behaviorsin abused children. Family factors and parenting styles are among the important causes ofchild abuse. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of child abuse and itsrelationship with parenting styles among primary school children in Sanandaj in 2016-2017. This cross-sectional study was conducted on primary school children whoresided in Sanandaj during 2016-2017. Study sample size was 393 children and samplingmethod was cluster random sampling. Data was collected using Majdzadeh’s standard childabuse questionnaire and Baumrind‘s parenting style questionnaire. Dispersion indices wereused for continuous variables and the chi-square test was used for categorical variables. Thelevel of statistical significance was set as P < 0.05. Out of 393 students 44.8% were boys and 55.2% were girls. The prevalence ofpsychological-emotional child abuse was 74.2%, while physical and neglect child abusewere observed 58.4% and 99% of the children respectively. Neglect child abuse was moreprevalent among girls while physical child abuse was more prevalent among boys. Therewas a significant relationship between paternal occupation and physical child abuse (P =0.017). Child abuse was significantly related to the birth order of children (p=0.008).Among the parenting styles, authoritative parenting had a reverse and significantrelationship with physical child abuse (P = 0.009). There was no significant relationshipbetween other parenting styles and child abuse (P > 0.05). Regarding the high prevalence of child abuse and its reverse relationship withauthoritative parenting style and physical child abuse, it is suggested for parents to use this