Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse among Mothers in a Teritiary Setting

Background Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a complex and context-bound phenomenon that exists in every society and there is a significant increase in the cases reported. Most of them still remain under the iceberg. Identified cases has brought to the limelight that CSA prevention educational programmes in various settings would have decreased the incidence of child sexual abuse to some extent. In order to develop an effective programme, it is important to understand how parents perceive and respond about child sexual abuse. Aim This study was aimed at understanding the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers on prevention of child sexual abuse in a tertiary setting in the southern state of India. Methodology In a descriptive cross sectional study, 215 mothers were enrolled. A self-administered questionnaire which was developed by the researcher (CVI 0.8) along with demographic profile sheet to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers on prevention of child sexual abuse was used. Results Both descriptive and inferential statistics were analysed using SPSS software 21.0 version. Chi square test was used as test of significance and p value less than0.05 was considered significant. Data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS 16.0 software and p value of less than0.05 was considered to be significant. Among the 215 respondents majority (62.3 %) of the participants belong to the age group of 31-40 years with 69.8 % of children belonging to the schooler age group (6-years). A good proportion of mothers have moderately adequate knowledge (73 %) and attitude (68.4 %) while only (27.4 %) have moderately adequate practice regarding prevention of child sexual abuse. There was a significant association between certain demographic variables such as Maternal Age (0.002**), Marital status (0.006**), Place of Residence (0.070*), Mothers occupation (0.006**) with the knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers regarding prevention of child sexual abuse. Conclusion The present study has identified the gap in CSA prevention education and recommends that in the forthcoming preventive education strategies mothers should be meticulously taught about the multi facets of Child sexual abuse.