Knowledge and awareness level of health undergraduate students on child abuse: a cross-sectional study

Üstündağ, Alev; Göktaş, Ayşe; Aytekin, Çiğdem

doi:10.1590/1806-9282.20231742

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Original Article • Rev. Assoc. Med. Bras. 70 (6) • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9282.20231742 copy

Knowledge and awareness level of health undergraduate students on child abuse: a cross-sectional study

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

SUMMARY

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of the study was to investigate the level of knowledge of symptoms and risks of child abuse among undergraduate health science students according to their socio-demographic characteristics.

METHODS:

This is a cross-sectional study involving 485 student volunteers. The data collection tools used in the study were the Demographic Data Collection Form and the Scale for Diagnosing Symptoms and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect.

RESULTS:

It was found that health students' knowledge of the symptoms and risks of child abuse was moderate. It was also found that knowledge of diagnosing the symptoms and risks of child abuse was higher among women than among men, higher among those who had received education on child abuse, and increased with grade level.

CONCLUSION:

Child abuse is an important public health issue, and there is a need to raise awareness of this issue among health students.

KEYWORDS:
Child abuse; Child neglect; Students; public health

		PSCA (Mean±SS)	BSCAN (Mean±SS)	SCN (Mean± SS)	CPPAN (Mean±SS)	CCPAN (Mean ±SS)	FCCAN (Mean ±SS)	SDSRCAN (Mean±SS)
Gender	Women n=427	3.85±0.40	3.94±0.57	3.73±0.39	3.61±0.48	3.26±0.42	2.79±0.33	3.61±0.30
Gender	Men n=58	3.67±0.51	3.80±0.76	3.59±0.49	3.65±0.44	3.19±0.47	2.76±0.46	3.51±0.35
Test statistics^ Mann-Whitney U test statistical value.		z=-2.573 p=0.010	z=-1.199 p=0.231	z=-2.270 p=0.023	z=0.542 p=0.588	z=-1.526 p=0.127	z=0.002 p=0.999	z=-2.178 p=0.029
Grade level	1 n=122	3.75±0.40	3.86±0.60	3.62±0.40	3.47±0.43	3.20±0.39	2.81±0.36	3.52±0.27
	2 n=107	3.81±0.40	3.86±0.60	3.63±0.40	3.50±0.46	3.20±0.42	2.85±0.35	3.56±0.31
	3 n=97	3.81±0.42	3.95±0.60	3.73±0.35	3.68±0.43	3.31±0.38	2.76±0.36	3.62±0.29
	4 n=146	3.93±0.43	4.00±0.59	3.80±0.45	3.78±0.51	3.30±0.47	2.75±0.34	3.68±0.33
Test statistics^* * Kruskal-Wallis test statistics.		χ²=11.077 p=0.011 4>1	χ²=3.410 p=0.333	χ²=9.502 p=0.023 4>1	χ²=33.879 p<0.001 3>1,2 4>1,2	χ²=8.527 p=0.036	χ²=2.607 p=0.456	χ²=17.048 p=0.001 4>1
Relatives living at home during childhood	Yes n=103	3.88±0.40	4.00±0.52	3.77±0.42	3.70±0.48	3.30±0.41	2.72±0.33	3.64±0.29
Relatives living at home during childhood	No n=382	3.81±0.42	3.90±0.62	3.69±0.41	3.60±0.47	3.24±0.43	2.81±0.35	3.59±0.31
Test statistics^ Mann-Whitney U test statistical value.		z=-1.283 p=0.200	z=-1.483 p=0.138	z=-0.922 p=0.357	z=-1.661 p=0.097	z=-1.500 p=0.134	Z=2.354 p=0.019	t=1.689 p=0.092
Status of education about child abuse	Yes n=136	3.87±0.39	3.98±0.56	3.74±0.40	3.72±0.49	3.25±0.43	2.83±0.38	3.65±0.29
Status of education about child abuse	No n=349	3.81±0.43	3.90±0.61	3.70±0.41	3.57±0.46	3.25±0.42	2.78±0.34	3.58±0.31
Test statistics^ Mann-Whitney U test statistical value.		z=-1.237 p=0.216	z=-1.332 p=0.183	z=-1.004 p=0.316	z=-2.830 p=0.005	z=-0.097 p=0.922	z=-0.699 p=0.484	t=2.196 p=0.029
Status of believing that knowledge about child abuse is adequate	Yes n=107	3.91±0.46	3.98±0.63	3.80±0.45	3.67±0.52	3.27±0.50	2.86±0.37	3.67±0.33
	No n=378	3.80±0.40	3.91±0.59	3.69±0.39	3.60±0.46	3.24±0.40	2.77±0.34	3.58±0.30
Test statistics^ Mann-Whitney U test statistical value.		z=-2.202 p=0.028	z=-0.820 p=0.412	z=-1.875 p=0.061	z=-0.896 p=0.370	z=-0.611 p=0.541	z=-1.804 p=0.071	t=2.612 p=0.009

		PSCA (Mean±SS)	BSCAN (Mean±SS)	SCN (Mean±SS)	CPPAN (Mean±SS)	CCPAN (Mean±SS)	FCCAN (Mean±SS)	SDSRCAN(Mean±SS)
Programs	Nutrition and Dietetics¹1 World Health Organization. Child maltreatment. 2022. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/child-maltreatment https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheet... n=34	3.96±0.36	3.93±0.56	3.76±0.35	3.66±0.43	3.34±0.41	2.86±0.25	3.67±0.25
	Child Development²2 Polat O. Child abuse report in Turkey-2. 2018. Available from: http://imdat.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RAPOR%C3%87OCUK-%C4%B0ST%C4%B0SMARI-tam.pdf http://imdat.org/wp-content/uploads/2018... n=127	3.76±0.38	3.87±0.59	3.69±0.40	3.71±0.47	3.21±0.41	2.79±0.36	3.58±0.28
	Speech and Language Therapy³3 Strathearn L, Giannotti M, Mills R, Kisely S, Najman J, Abajobir A. Long-term cognitive, psychological, and health outcomes associated with child abuse and neglect. Pediatrics. 2020;146(4):e20200438. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-0438 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-0438... n=17	3.73±0.36	3.83±0.52	3.61±0.28	3.63±0.36	3.27±0.31	2.76±0.28	3.54±0.27
	Dental Medicine⁴4 Harris NB. The deepest well. Boston (MA): Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 2018. n=16	3.45±0.37	3.55±0.52	3.49±0.37	3.36±0.47	3.04±0.51	2.83±0.35	3.35±0.25
	Midwifery⁵5 Thiekötter L, Schmidt P, Scheiderer ML, Wunram HL, Paulussen M, Reis D, et al. How stressful ıs examining children with symptoms of child abuse?-Measurement of stress appraisal (SAM) in German physicians with key expertise in pediatrics. Children (Basel). 2022;9(10):1578. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9101578 https://doi.org/10.3390/children9101578... (n=15)	3.87±0.45	3.86±0.60	3.59±0.38	3.60±0.51	3.37±0.48	2.81±0.44	3.59±0.27
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	Audiology¹⁰10 Soares Junior JM, Oliveira HMC, Luquetti CM, Zuchelo LTS, Arruda Veiga EC, Raimundo JZ, et al. Adolescents' knowledge of HPV and sexually transmitted infections at public high schools in São Paulo: a cross-sectional study. Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2022;77:100138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinsp.2022.100138 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinsp.2022.10... n=21	3.65±0.40	3.63±0.45	3.38±0.39	3.40±0.46	2.93±0.41	2.98±0.43	3.40±0.26
	Health Administratio¹¹11 Uysal A. Determining the knowledge levels of nurses and midwives in diagnosing the symptoms and risks of child abuse and neglect. Unpublished Master's Thesis. Izmir: Ege University; 1998. n=22	3.72±0.34	3.95±0.53	3.63±0.34	3.39±0.53	3.14±0.37	2.77±0.29	3.50±0.30
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Test statistics^* * Kruskal-Wallis test statistics.		χ²=41.073 p<0.001	χ²=27.115 p=0.007	χ²=39.140 p<0.001	χ²=24.650 p=0.017	χ²=26.687 p=0.009	χ²=24.428 p=0.018	χ²=37.383 p<0.001
Source of difference^ Dunn-Bonferroni post hoc test results.		4<1 4<8 4<9 4<13	9>4 9>10	10<1 10<8 10<9 10<13		10<6 10<9 10)<13	8<9 8<10	4<1 4<8 4<9 4<13 10<8 1<9

		PSCA	BSCAN	SCN	CPPAN	CCPAN	FCCAN	SDSRCAN
Gender	r_pb	-0.131	-0.078	-0.109	0.027	-0.054	-0.028	-0.101
Gender	p	0.004	0.088	0.016	0.558	0.238	0.538	0.026
Status of education about child abuse	r_pb	-0.068	-0.063	-0.048	-0.137	0.002	-0.065	-0.099
Status of education about child abuse	p	0.135	0.169	0.294	0.002	0.969	0.155	0.029
Status of believing that knowledge about child abuse is adequate	r_pb	-0.103	-0.045	-0.119	-0.058	-0.027	-0.107	-0.118
	p	0.023	0.319	0.009	0.203	0.554	0.019	0.009
Grade level	rho	0.160	0.096	0.170	0.269	0.114	-0.084	0.208
Grade level	p	0.000	0.036	0.000	0.000	0.013	0.069	0.000
Programs	r_pb	0.103	0.092	0.074	-0.098	0.016	-0.014	0.053
Programs	p	0.025	0.046	0.107	0.033	0.724	0.756	0.249

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[1] *Corresponding author: alev.ustundag@sbu.edu.tr