Attitude of Adults towards Educating Children to Protect Themselves from Sexual Abuse in Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: This research was planned to assess attitude of adults towards educating children about sexual abuse prevention.

Study Design: Observational cross-section study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted on people living in cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan during March-June 2018.

Materials and Methods: Data was collected from 228 people by non-probability convenient sampling. People of both genders with any marital status, above 18 years of age and with minimum high school education or above were considered eligible for this study. A self-designed structured questionnaire was used to collect data which was analysed using SPSS version 23. P value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Majority (94.7%) of the participants, irrespective of their gender (p-value=0.19) and marital status (pvalue= 0.08), were in favour of educating children about sexual abuse prevention. Around 42% participants tried themselves to educate children on this topic and males' participation in it was observed to be less than females (p-value=0.005). Optimal age to educate children was considered between 5-9 years. A positive response was shown by participants, when the extent and ways of child sexual abuse prevention education were discussed.
Conclusion: Majority of the adults are in favour of educating children to protect themselves from sexual abuse so they are able to recognize and react effectively to potentially dangerous situations.