Family and knowledge about child abuse

Abstract

Introduction: as an expression of violence, child abuse is a major health problem; this phenomenon has particular characteristics and serious consequences for the health of the child. The family, as the first socializing space, transmits norms and values charged with reiterative force and affective significance for its members, with the particularity that the manifestations of violence are closely linked to their intergenerational history.

Objective: to determine the level of knowledge about child maltreatment in families of the Popular Council "Pedro Martínez Brito" in Ciego de Ávila.

Method: a cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in families belonging to six medical clinics in the area. From a universe of 1 150 families with infants, a sample of 407 families with children aged 0-10 years was selected. The information was obtained from the individual medical records and family files of the clinics; a validated questionnaire was used to survey the families.

Results: most of the children (60,8 %) lived only with their mothers –single or divorced– and 32,9 % with both parents. Families were classified as severely dysfunctional (4,4 %), dysfunctional (36,1 %), moderately functional (34,1 %) and functional (25,3 %). Only 46,8 % of the families showed knowledge about child maltreatment; the majority expressed attitudes and practices that evidenced ignorance on the subject.

Conclusions: the traditional conception of the family as a private reality makes it difficult for its members to identify and correct norms and behaviors that generate child maltreatment and to acquire knowledge about it