Study On Child Neglect&Abuse Status And Their Influential Factors Of Left-behind Children In One Rural Area Of Anhui Province

Objective The main aims of this study were to examine the status of child abuse andneglect and theirs influential factors among left-behind children in rural area of Anhuiprovince and to provide the basic information for the development of child abuse andneglect intervention program.Methods This questionnaire survey draw-out three middle schools and five primaryschools from ChangFeng county of Anhui province with cluster sampling method.3169students were recruited as the subjects from all the draw-out middle school students andgrade three to six primary school students. Data were collected by using Generalpopulation index, the Parents-Child Conflict Tactics Scales, the Family APGAR Indexand the Quality of Life Scale. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysiswere performed to evaluate the influential factors of the status of child abuse andneglect among left-behind children.Results1694left-behind children accounted for58.1％of the total students. Theprevalence of child neglect among students was67.4％,the prevalence of child abuseamong students was54.4%. The prevalence of child neglect among left-behind children（70.2％）was higher than that among other childre（n63.5％）with significant difference（χ~2=14.322，P＜0.001）. The prevalence of child abuse among left-behind children（51.4％）was lower than that among other children（58.5％）with significant difference（χ~2=14.787，P＜0.001）.The prevalence of child abuse and neglect in the same groupof male or female among left-behind children were higher than that among otherchildren with significant difference （χ~2=8.743,P=0.003; χ~2=5.461,P=0.019）. The prevalence of child abuse in the group of male among left-behind children was lowerthan that among other children with significant difference（χ~2=19.910,P＜0.001）.Theprevalence of child abuse and neglect in different family function groups amongleft-behind children and non left-behind children were significant difference. Data fromunivariate logistic regression analysis showed that parents go out, less contactfrequence(few contact and never contact), fellow or self custody and familydysfunction(moderate and serious dysfunction) were left-behind children neglect riskfactors and earlier start age of left-behind and board were its protective factors. Earlierstart age of left-behind, less contact frequence(sometimes contact and nevercontact),and family dysfunction (moderate and serious dysfunction) were left-behindchildren abuse risk factors and parents go out, shorter time of left-behind and custodytype(every generation custody and relatives custody) were its protective factors. Datafrom multivariate analysis showed that children who had left-behind, board, familydysfunction or poor quality of life were more vulnerable to child neglect. Children whohad left-behind, male, younger, father die, high income, poor relations between studentsand teachers, poor academic record, family dysfunction or poor quality of life weremore vulnerable to child abuse. Left-behind children who had less contact frequence,family dysfunction or board were more vulnerable to child neglect. Left-behind childrenwho had earlier start age of left-behind, less contact frequence, single parent custody orfamily dysfunction were more vulnerable to child abuse.Conclusion Many factors were found to be involved in child abuse and neglectamong children, especially regarding left-behind, family function, custody type. Specialpreventive measures should be taken to reduce the prevalence of child abuse and neglectamong children, especially in the left-behind children in rural area.