Prevalence of Child Abuse and its Related Factors in Iran: A Systematic Review

Child abuse is a global problem that is deeply rooted in the cultural, social, and economic performance of society. It is a behavior that occurs in various forms of physical, mental, emotional, or sexual, which can cause harm to the health, welfare, and education of the child. The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of child abuse and its related factors in Iran.

In the present systematic review study, to find articles related to the prevalence of child abuse in Iran, valid databases such as Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane, SID, Magiran, IranDoc, and Google Scholar was were searched using the keywords of “child abuse”, “physical abuse” “emotional abuse”,” neglect”, “prevalence” and “Iran”.

In this study, 22 articles were analyzed. Based on this review about 4.5%-58.2% of children reported physical abuse, 7.3%-91.6% emotional abuse, and 5.5%-85.3% neglect. Factors associated with child abuse were hyperactivity anxiety and mental status disorder. All studies showed a significant relationship of abuses with education, occupation, addiction, and divorce of parents. Moreover, depression and anxiety of parents and poor parental relationships were related to abuse of children.

Child abuse has many negative effects on childish and adolescent health. It seems that child abuse in Iran is in critical condition; therefore, policymakers must take action to solve this problem and prevent it by designing special programs and effective policies in Iran.