Determining the Attitudes of Midwifery and Child Development Department Students Towards Child Neglect and Abuse Reporting and Solution Suggestions

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to examine the knowledge levels and reporting skills of this subject, which is covered within the scope of the child health and diseases course before and after the course on child neglect and abuse. Material and Methods: For this study, a quasi-experimental method, a two-group pre-test posttest model, was used. Data were collected using a questionnaire distributed to students in the Child Development and Midwifery Department before and after the relevant training. For the study, it tried to reach the whole universe by not going to the sample calculation. The research sample consists of 142 participants. A descriptive information form and “Survey for Solutions to Prevent Abuse and Neglect, Healthcare Provider Attitudes Toward Child Maltreatment Reporting Scale” were used to collect the data. Results: A statistically significant difference was found between the scores of attitude scale scores of the students studying in the preschool department towards reporting child abuse and neglect (p<0.05). While there was a statistically significant difference between the pretestposttest and pretest-followup scores of midwifery students’ attitudes towards reporting child abuse and neglect (p<0.05), there was no difference between posttest-followup (p>0.05). While there was a statistically significant difference between the pretest-posttest and pretest-followup score averages of the pre-test-posttest and pretest-followup scores of the students studying in the preschool department, there was no difference between the posttest-followup (p>0.05). No statistically significant difference was found between the average scores of midwifery students in the Questionnaire for Solutions to Prevent Abuse and Neglect (p>0.05). Conclusion: This study concluded that education positively affects reporting child neglect and abuse and solution proposals. In this respect, it is thought that it would be beneficial to add the subject of child neglect and abuse to the curriculum of schools.