Examining the Relationship between Instances of Child Abuse and Parents' Lifestyle (Case Study: Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province in 2021)

Lifestyle is a mixture of individual patterns and behaviors through life, which forms the culture of a society, which is a category of precise patterns for life. The key reason for the child abuse phenomenon is the way of life and culture that has been incorrectly and erroneously established among people from the commencement and necessitates cultural and social interventions as well as legal interventions.

To examine the relationship between child abuse (physical, sexual, negligence and inattention, malnutrition, emotional) and health-based lifestyle (physical activities, nutrition, addiction, spiritual health, social and psychological health, etc.) in 2021, field research (survey) was done on a sample of 97 parents with children aged 4-18 in Shahrekord city, whose children had been subjected to numerous instances of child abuse (reference organization: Welfare and Forensic Medicine Organization). The subjects' information was attained by completing the standard LSQ and child abuse questionnaires of Mohammad Khani (1998). The research hypotheses were tested via correlation and regression statistical tests.

The achieved results disclosed a negative and significant correlation between the parents' lifestyle variable and child abuse (beta coefficient = -0.704). The observed results of the regression analysis revealed that diverse lifestyle indicators are suitable predictors for all types of child abuse cases. With the upsurge of more suitable lifestyles, the amount of child abuse decreases significantly. In the present study, social health, addiction, and psychological health were higher predictors to clarify the instances of child abuse, and their role was clearly recognized in the current research (p<0.01).

The results of this research revealed the significance of lifestyle and culture in the incidence of child abuse. The analysis disclosed that by establishing social and psychological health indicators and decreasing addiction, it is probable to reduce the occurrence of child abuse and the crimes caused by it.