The assessment of awareness of child abuse among certain social groups

Child abuse is an act of doing something or failing to do something that result in harm to a child or puts a child at risk of harm. Although the occurrence of child abuse in our society is a serious problem, the statistics often remain unreliable. The purpose of our research was an assessment of the knowledge, attitudes and experiences among physicians, medical students and teachers of reporting child abuse and neglect. The questionnaire containing questions about the demographic data of our respondents and questions regarding the analysed subject was created. The resultswerestatisticallyanalyzed using the Chi-square Test. Theinvestigatedgroup consisted of139 teachers, 131 medical studentsand53 physicians. Amongthephysicians, specialists with more than 10 yr of experience constituted 83% with a predomination of pediatricians. Among the teachers, those with more than 10 yr of experience constituted 67%. Medical journals and professional trainings were the main source of knowledge for the physicians, while television and radio were the source of knowledge for teachers significantly more often than with others groups. The majority of respondents encountered cases of child abuse (physicians 74%, students 29%, and teachers 58%). In spite of their declared knowledge about child abuse the majority of physicians and medical students claim that low social status and uneducated families are the risk factors of child maltreatment, while the majority of teachers are aware there is no difference ( P< 0.000001). The majority of respondents encountered cases of child abuse but their knowledge of child maltreatment still remains insufficient. It is considered reasonable to extend the range of obligatory professional trainings.