Family Violence and its Impact on Children’s Mental Health During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This research aims to identify the types and prevalence rates of family violence against children during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. It also aims to identify the mental health problems those child victims of family violence develop, and the differences between children who experience high and low family violence rates. The research was conducted on a sample of 160 child victims of family violence in primary schools. The researchers applied an assessment of family violence of their design, and the results were very high. Then they applied an assessment of mental health problems they designed and which included 8 problems which all sample members suffered from. The scale was based on an open question, and the results showed that the violence types with high rates (compared to average and low rates) were ranked as follows: threat with violence, moral violence, social violence, economic violence, and lastly physical violence. The results also showed increase in the 8 mental health problems high rate (compared to the average and low rates), and the problems were as follows: lying, destructivity, impulsivity, aggressiveness, fear, night terror attacks, self-harm and finally self-hate. Furthermore, this research addresses the high rates of family violence’s negative impact (compared to the low rate) on the increase of mental health problems. F test result was (40.11), with a higher significant difference higher than (0.01). At the end, the researchers concluded several important recommendations.