Assessment of Child Physical Abuse among Mothers in Mala A Fandi Health Care Centre/Erbil City

Abstract

Child physical abuse is an important cause of pediatric morbidity and mortality and is associated with major physical and mental health problems that can extend into adulthood. The main research purpose was to assess sociodemographic characteristics of mothers and find out the most common types and physical abuse among children. This descriptive study is conducted on Mothers of Abused Child at Mala A fandi Health Care Centre in Erbil city of Kurdistan region of Iraq. A convenient sampling was used to choose 100 Mothers who visited particular health center. Questionnaire was used as a tool for collecting data from Mothers who have children <15 years old visited the Health center and who did consent informed. Findings showed that (40%) of the mothers’ ages were between 30 and 39 years and had a primary certificate, (77%) of mothers that were in nuclear family types, a majority of them were unemployed. In addition to that, more than 40% of mothers used twisted the child’s ear, pinched the child, and slapped the child’s faces or head. This study concluded that the level of education of mothers, as well as number of child in family, have a pivotal role in using physical abuse. Therefore, family planning and educating mothers may decrease the degree of incidence of child abuse Kurdistan region of Iraq

Keywords

• child; mothers;
• physical abuse types;
• socio-economic