A Survey on Child Abuse and Some Demographic Factors Affecting Students of the Third Grade of Guidance School in Zanjan in 2011

Child abuse is one of the major health and social problems in all countries whichis affected by factors including cultural، social، family، and some characteristics of children. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of child abuse and some related demographic factors among pupils in the third grade of guidance school in Zanjan. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2011. A total of 410 students were selected by multistage random sampling. The structured child abuse questionnaire from ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool Children''s Version (ICAST-C) was utilized. Questionnaires were distributed among the students of the selected schools and collected after being completed. To examine the relationship between variables، chi-square test and chi-square test for trend were performed. The results revealed that about 78% of pupils reported emotional abuse، 56% physical abuse and 39% reported neglect. Emotional abuse exhibited positive associations with number of siblings and mother''s age، and negative associations with birth order and father''s education (p≤0. 05). Physical abuse suggested direct associations with death of one of parents and number of siblings، while it showed an indirect association with mother''s age (p<0. 05). A Statistically significant positive associations between neglect and gender، number of siblings and birth order (p<0. 05) were found. The findings indicate a high prevalence of child abuse، particularly emotional abuse among the pupils of the study، which necessitates education and training of parents thtough proper training courses in order to take steps to reduce child abuse.