Investigation of Prevalence of Child Abuse in Addicts Referring to the Addiction Withdrawal Clinic

Child abuse includes; abuse of the body, mental and sexual abuse or misbehavior against children that leads to damage to the child's heath and comfort. Therefore, the present study was done in order to determine the prevalence of child abuse in opiate addicts referring to addiction withdrawal centers. The cross sectional study included 300 participations (150 addicts and 150 non-addicts) The addicted group comprised of opiate addicts referring to addiction withdrawal centers of Yazd. The non addicted group was selected randomly from healthy people. Data collection was performed via a standard questionnaire. Data assessment was done via statistical analysis (K S) Collected data in the addicted group showed the following results; about 56 percent were child tormentors, 1- 45.3% males, 10.7% females, 2-18.7% uneducated, 3-46% with divorce history in their family and 4-38% child body abuse. The most prevalent type of the body abuse was slapping (24%), mostly because of bad training (26%). Collected data in the no addicted group showed the following results; 42% were child tormentors (26% male and 15.3% female) 23.4% with family divorce history, 30.4% were child body abuse and the most prevalent type of body abuse was slapping (22.79%), mostly because of bad training (33.3%) A direct relationship was observed between child abuse and persons addicted to opiates. Factors playing an important role include; illiteracy, divorce history in the family and history of child abuse in childhood period. Therefore, compilation of rules supporting children, establishment of support and parent education centers can be effective to reduce child persecution.