Background: Child abuse is a major concern in India with frequent reports of extreme maltreatment and fatalities. A dearth of robust and methodologically sound studies has resulted in ambiguity regarding the extent of child abuse in the general population.
Objectives: To estimate the one-year and lifelong prevalence of exposure to violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect using a validated instrument-the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) Child Abuse Screening Tool - Child, Home Version (ICAST-CH).
Participants and setting: Adolescents (n = 6957) attending randomly selected schools in one city in Kerala, India.
Methods: Cross-sectional survey using self-report instrument.
Results: The one-year prevalence of any abuse was 89.9% (95% CI: 89.1-90.7) suggesting that child maltreatment was widespread. Physical and emotional abuses were also very common. Although sexual abuse was least common, a considerable proportion of adolescents reported it; one-year prevalence of sexual abuse was 16.7% and lifetime prevalence was 19.9%. Boys reported more abuse than girls across all the categories of abuse (including sexual abuse). Abuse was more frequent in the higher age groups and classes at school. Abuse was also more frequent in nuclear families and families that reported alcohol use. Children who reported an abusive experience usually faced more than one category of abuse; abuse in one category was significantly associated with abuse in other categories.
Conclusions: Abuse of children is alarmingly common. There is an urgent need for improving the awareness surrounding this issue as it is a major public health challenge faced by the country. The priority should be on setting up easily accessible support services for children.
Keywords: Adolescent; Child abuse; Exposure to violence; India; Prevalence; Self report.
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