Child Maltreatment Reports during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a threat to the safety of children and families. This scoping review synthesized the findings about the prevalence of child maltreatment (CM) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PRISMA guidelines were followed in the current study. According to most of the studies (85,7%) involving units where CM reports are received, the reporting rates of CM have decreased. However, the rate of traumatic injury or hospitalization due to physical abuse has increased. Community-based studies involving parents and survey studies show an increase in CM rates excluding sexual abuse. The decrease in CM rates ranged from 8% to 55,3%, while the increase rates ranged from 1,12% to 33,3%. As another finding, parental/ socioeconomic characteristics (e.g., unemployment, parenting stress) increased the risk of CM. Hence, mental health and social work professionals who work with children have a critical responsibility to identify children at risk and to reveal the full extent of CM.

Keywords

• Child abuse
• Child neglect
• Children at risk
• Systematic review

Covid-19 Pandemisinde Çocuk İstismarı Bildirimleri: Bir Derleme Çalışması

Abstract

COVID-19 salgını, çocukların ve ailelerin sağlığına yönelik bir tehdit oluşturmuştur. Bu derleme çalışmasının amacı COVİD-19 pandemisi sırasında çocuk istismarının yaygınlığı hakkındaki bulguları sentezlemektir. Bu çalışmada PRISMA yönergeleri izlenmiştir. Derleme sonuçlarına göre, çocuk istismarı bildirimlerinin alındığı birimleri içeren çalışmaların çoğuna (%85,7) göre çocuk istismarı bildirim oranları düşüş göstermektedir. Bununla birlikte, fiziksel istismara bağlı travmatik yaralanma veya hastaneye yatış oranı artmıştır. Ebeveynleri içeren toplum temelli çalışmalar ve anket çalışmaları, cinsel istismar hariç çocuk istismarı oranlarında bir artış olduğunu göstermektedir. Çocuk istismarı oranlarındaki düşüş %8 ile %55,3 arasında değişirken, artış oranları %1,12 ile %33,3 arasında değişmiştir. Diğer bir bulgu olarak, ebeveyn/sosyoekonomik özellikler (Örnek: işsizlik, ebeveynlik stresi) çocuk istismarı riskini artırmaktadır. Bu nedenle, çocuklarla çalışan ruh sağlığı ve sosyal hizmet uzmanlarının risk altındaki çocukları belirleme ve istismarın tüm kapsamını ortaya çıkarma konusunda önemli bir sorumluluğu bulunmaktadır.

Keywords

• Çocuk istismarı
• Çocuk ihmali
• Risk altındaki çocuklar
• Sistematik derleme

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