A Study to Assess the Knowledge regarding Sexual Abuse among School-going Children

Abstract

Introduction: Biologically, a human being from the developmental stages of birth to puberty may be referred as a child. Legally, child is usually called a minor, or a person who has not reached the age of majority. Child sexual abuse is a peculiarly ominous kind of trauma as it creates horrific shame in the victim. Victims of sexual abuse during this stagegenerally are too immature and cannot express what is happening and don’t seek out help. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the knowledge regarding sexual abuse in school-going children and analyse the relation between a child’s level of knowledge about sexual abuse and selected demographic variables. Methodology: The research design adopted in this study was non-experimental exploratory research design. A semi-structured tool consisting of two parts was used to collect data. Part A of the tool consisted of questions pertaining to demographic profile of the participants and part B consisted of knowledge assessment questions. Results: Out of 60 students, 83% had good knowledge and 17% had average knowledge. A positive correlation was found between the level of knowledge regarding sexual abuse and educational qualification of parents. Conclusion: The results showed that 17% of the students had average knowledge about sexual abuse and 83% had good knowledge.With this, it can be concluded that there is still a need to educate the children regarding sexual abuse and empower them to protect themselves from this traumatising experience. Hence the study was followed by a health education programme with the help of an educational video by NCERT named ‘Komal’.