Abstract

Objectives: This research was conducted to show the prevalence of child abuse in the se-condary school students in the town of Khorramabad. The effective factors were also deter- mined.

Method: 240 students (117 girls, 123 boys) in the first, second, and third grades of second- dary schools were selected randomly as the subjects of this cross-sectional and descriptive study. Child Abuse and Neglect Questionnaire was used as the main instrument. The find- ings were analyzed and interpreted by descriptive statistics and c².

Findings: The most prevalent abuse was related to that of emotional abuse implicated res- pectively by the fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers in both boys and girls (91.6%). By and large (58.2%), parents and brothers physically abused the children. 38 subjects, all girls (32.5%) reported to having been sexually abused. A significant correlation was indicated between emotional and physical abuse with family financial status, birth order, mental ill-ness and illicit drug addiction of family members and family social interactions. There was no significant correlation between the age of parents with physical and emo-tional abuse. Furthermore, no significant correlation was noted between the parents’ oc-cupation and level of education with emotional abuse.

Results: Child abuse is prevalent and it is mostly implicated by the parents.