A STUDY TO ASSESS KNOWLEDGE OF MOTHERS REGARDING CHILD ABUSE IN THE SELECTED RURAL AND URBAN AREAS IN LUCKNOW WITH A VIEW TO DEVELOP INFORMATION BY PROVIDING BOOKLET

Background : Child abuse is significant global problem with a serious impact on victim through their lives. According to WHO (2013) stated that the international level of prevalence in child abuse and neglect was approximately 50500 children were at the risk of child abuse right now. The union ministry of women and child development survey on 12500 children across 13 states including Uttar Pradesh revealed that 56% children were abused sexually,of those sexually abused, 57% were boys. Aim: To assess knowledge of mothers regarding child abuse in the selected rural and urban areas in Lucknow with a view to develop information by providing booklet. Material and Method : Descriptive comparative research carried out among mothers residing in selected urban and rural area selected by convenient sampling technique. Selection of participants was done on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria and then informed consent was taken. A self-structured questionnaire was given among 100 sample out of which 50 sample were from the population of urban area and 50 sample were from population of rural area and then the data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: The study finding concluded that out of 100 subjects 24(24%) mothers had good knowledge,64(64%)mothers had average knowledge and only 12(12%) mothers had poor knowledge. Whereas majority of the case showed average level of knowledge (64%) followed by the good knowledge (23%) and 12% cases showed poor knowledge in rural area. In Urban area, majority of the cases showed average level of knowledge (47.8%) followed by the good knowledge (39.1%) while 13.0% cases showed poor knowledge. The significant association was found in proportion of various knowledge levels among various age groups . Conclusion: In the current study, it was revealed that majority of the subjects have average knowledge regarding child abuse in selected rural and urban areas of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The study proved that the information booklet provided by the researchers was effective to increase the knowledge regarding child abuse among mothers. Hence, it is necessary for the health care providers to take an initiative in providing adequate knowledge and education to enhance knowledge of mothers regarding child abuse.