Female teachers' child abuse reporting role in Oman: Results from focus groups

Abstract

Background: Schoolteachers are in a good position to identify and report suspected child abuse and neglect cases; however, they still fail to report all the cases. Recently, the Sultanate of Oman, which is a collectivistic culture, mandated schoolteachers to report any suspected case. However, there is a lack of evidence known to us about the factors associated with Omani teachers' reporting behavior. Such evidence is needed to inform the interventions that are designed to enhance teachers' reporting behavior.

Objective: The current study was designed to address this gap by exploring the factors that affect Omani schoolteachers reporting behavior of suspected child abuse and neglect cases.

Participants and setting: A total of 26 participants were recruited from five basic education schools in the Muscat governorate in Oman.

Methods: This is a descriptive qualitative study. Five focus group discussions were conducted. Thematic coding was used for data analysis.

Results: Three themes were discerned from the data analysis. The factors that affect Omani schoolteachers as described by the participants were: 1) reporting within an environment of educational resource scarcity; 2) reporting within an environment of competing female social roles and their professional reporting role; and 3) reporting within an environment of complex and diverse abuse and neglect cases.

Conclusions: Our findings highlight the role of culture in reporting behavior. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Keywords: Child abuse; Collective society; Female; Mandatory reporting; Schoolteachers; Social.