Abstract

The study examined the socioeconomic factors which affect child abuse. Researches have shown that
children from lower socioeconomic status are at a higher risk of child abuse than the children from
higher socioecominc status. There are many factors which contribute to child absue such as poor mental
health of parensts. The sample of this study consisted of 97 participants from Karachi, Pakistan.
Hypothesis of the study is that child abuse frequently occurs in the lower class.

Key words: lower socioeconomic factors, higher socioeconimc factors, child abuse, poor mental health

Socioconmic factors affecting child abuse

Child abuse is the intentional physical, emotional or sexual abuse or even the neglect of the
child by [Link] factor implicated in the etiology of child abuse is parent’s own childhood
experiences of abuse.(Bert, Guner et al., 2009; Bert , lanzi, et al., 2009). Research shows that the
maltreated children becomes the abusive parents . (US National Research Council ,1993). There are
different types of abuses but this study focuses on physical and emotional abuse only. These abuses are
intentoanl acts by one person to another. Examples of physical abuse includes hitting, kicking slapping
and punching. Sherri Gordon explains emotional abuse as “Emotional abuse is a way to control another
person by using emotions to criticize, embarrass, shame, blame, or otherwise manipulate another
person”(Gordon. 2020)

Literature Review

The association between child abuse and poverty has been repeateadly shown in the research literature.
(MV, JM,V, 1997; Gingrich and Hudson, 1981; Antai, Braithwaite and Clerk, 2016; Masheti, 2012;
Mustafa, n.d;Berger, 2004; Berger, 2005; Berger, 2007; Loring ,1990) Studies (MV, JM,V, 1997; Gingrich
and Hudson, 1981; Antai, Braithwaite and Clerk, 2016; Masheti,2012) support the evidence that the
level of education and income is associated with child abuse and neglect. Some studies focused on
more then one type of violence such as neglect, psychological violence, physical , sexual and domestic
violence.(Mustafa, n.d). Some studies used control groups to make the study more relevant.(MV, JM, V ,
1997). The factors examined throughout the study were level of education , level of income,
occupation(Mesheti,2012;Berger, 2005 ; Berger, 2007; MV, JM, V, 1997; Gingrich and Hudson,1981)
while other studies have examined other factors as well such as marital status(Gingrich and Hudson,
1981), residence (Berger, 2004;Gingrich and Hudson, 1981; Antai, Braithwaite and Clerk, 2016) and race
(Berger, 2004).

Method

Participants

This research focused on the every age group ranging from under 20 to above [Link] participants
participated voluntarily with all the consents beign accepted. No names or further information of the
participants was aasked in this study. The surveys were distributed online as well as in person. The
particpants were the residents of Karachi , Pakistan. They were from all the backgrounds with both low
and high education as well as upper , middle and lower class people. The intended sample isze was of
150 peole but achieved sample size was 97 people.
Questonnaire

To collect data Child Abuse Questionnaire was used. Privacy of the participaints was maintained. The
Questionnare had three sections. First section focused on the income, education of the head of the
family as well as the age and gender of the participants. The first part of the questionnaire as discussed
above focuded on the gnder and the ae of the participants as wel as the occupation and education of
the head of the family. So for this likewise options were present. Second part of the questionnaire
focused on their thoughts about the abuse like where and when should child be physically or
emotionally abused and if it is necessary or not. The third part focuses on their own childhood
experiences. Likewise different scales were used for different sections. Such as in the second section
Likert scale was used where participants answered on the scale of 1-5 of how strongly they agreed or
disagreed. Similarly, the third section had the scale of 1-7 where 1 = Once in the past year. 2 = Twice in
the past year. 3 = 3-5 times in the past year. 4 = 6-10 times in the past year. 5 = 11-20 times in the past
year. 6 = More than 20 times in the past year. 7 = Not in the past year, but it happened before. 0 = This
has never happened respectively.

Data collection

8 questions were asked on participants on thoughs about the abuse , on the scale of 1-5 how much they
agreeor disagree with the respective question. What they think about a child , whether they should be i)
spanked for temper tantrums ii) punishing makes them adult iii) a slap will end the trouble iv) hitting
teaches the child a good lesson v) for disobedience they should be punished vi) beat with strap/stick
when they are expelled vii) when refuse to ibey they should be whipped viii)teacher should hit a chile to
teach good lesson. The other section asked about their own expeirnce of shooking, beaten with
belt/hairbrush/stick ,shouting/yelling, kicking, spanking with bare hand , choking, sworing/ cursing,
burning, threatening to send them out of house, tooking away priveldges, pinching and slapping.

Results

Of the 97 participants , as shown in Figure 1, 53.6% were females and 44.3% were male. Other 2.1%
preferred not to [Link] of the participants were in the age range of 20-30962.9%) while 17.5% were
under the age of 20. From the data we can see that 50% strongly disagreed with the spanking of children
for temper tantrums. 44% strongly disagreed for punshishing the children in order to maek them
mature. 61% strinlgy disagrred for slapping children to end the [Link], 39% stongly disagreed
on hitting children will teach them good [Link] on their own experience 43% were never hit with
the brush., belt etc while the results also show that other 57% also agreed on the number of times they
were hit such as 8%agreed on that they were hit 3-5 times in the following year.

References:

 National Research Council (1993), Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect, National

 [Link]
THE CITATION PLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS)