Prevalence of Maltreatment of Adolescents among High School Children in Kerala

IntroductionChild maltreatment is a state of emotional, physical, economic and sexual about meted out to a person below the age of eighteen and is a globally prevalent phenomenon. However, in India, as in many other countries, there has been no understanding of the extent, magnitude and trends of the problem (1). Children are not recognised as subjects of human rights and adults play arbitrary limits on children's fundamental freedom. Teachers and parents have broad discretionary powers and can restrict children freedom with little accountability. Most of the restrictions that children face on a daily basis are not entrenched in law but are part of school or family rules (2). Discipline is something adults do with and for children, rather than to children to stop them from behaving in undesirable ways (3). Child abuse is more than bruises and broken bones. While physical abuse might be the most visible sign, other types of abuse, such as emotional abuse or child neglect, also leave deep, long lasting scars (4). The impact that child maltreatment leaves has long lasting effects throughout life, damaging a child's sense of self, ability to have healthy relationships, and ability to function at home, at work and at school. There is dearth of research done on the broad array of disciplining techniques adopted in schools of India. This study aims to analyze the awareness of high school children about their own rights that Indian Judiciary dictates for them which will help them protect themselves from being abused. The study also attempts to estimate the prevalence of maltreatment.MethodsThe study was carried out as a cross sectional survey 2 high schools in Calicut district of Kerala. The participants were recruited to in the study via a stratified random sampling technique with age as factor for stratification. A sample of 300 children was selected. A self- report questionnaire developed and piloted in collaboration with the adolescents, elicited information on socioeconomic status, demographic profile, knowledge regarding child rights and adolescent maltreatment and their experience of maltreatment at home and school. The participants were 150 (50%) rural and remaining urban, 153 (51%) were boys and 147 (49%) girls with median age 14 and range 3. After obtaining institutional ethical clearance, data was collected by the investigators. Statistical analysis was carried out by using SPSS version 17.ResultsReliability test of the tool suggests that the items in the questionnaire are relevant and ensures the randomness of the data. (Chronback Alpha = 0.94). 50% of the children are from rural area and remaining urban. 83.3% [250] of the children have both their parents together while 14% [42] of their parents are abroad and stay with caretakers and 2.3% [8] have single parents. 75.7% [227] of the children come from nuclear family, 15% [45] of them from three generation families and remaining from joint families. 42% [126] of the families have monthly income less than 5000, 22% [66] have monthly income between 5000 - and 10,000 and the rest 36% earn more than 10000 as monthly income. Based on the response to the set of 15 questions on awareness of child rights, children were classified to have poor awareness about child rights if less than 6 answers were right, moderate awareness if 6 -10 answers were right and the rest to have good awareness. The information was elicited in table 1.Percentage of adolescents who have awareness about child rights and various types of maltreatment, by gender (n = 300)The analysis reveals that 161 (53.67%) of them had poor knowledge about their rights. Boys lack awareness (31.67%) than girls (21%). When urban and rural children were compared, it was found that among the urban children 19.67% (59) had good awareness about child rights while 23% [69] had poor knowledge (see table 2). 30.67% (92) of rural children had poor awareness whereas about 5. …