Prevalence of child abuse in child and adolescent clinical population referred to psychiatric facilities in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Introduction:  The present study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of child abuse in a child and adolescent psychiatric clinical population .
Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted in a clinical population of children and adolescents aged 8-18 years. 80 out-patients and 94 in-patients were selected according to probability proportional to size sampling. Kiddie Schedule for affective disorder and schizophrenia questionnaire, a demographic questionnaire, and child abuse self-report scale  were filled for each subject. Data were analyzed by using Stata software. 
Results: Among the out-patient subjects 50 were male (62.5 %) and 30 were female (37.5 %); for in-patient these subjects numbers were 76 (80.9 %) and 18 (19.1 %), respectively. The mean age of subjects was 15.2 years in the in-patient group and 11.7 years in the out-patient group. In 66.1% of abuse cases the perpetrators were parents, 5.2% siblings, and 28.7% someone else. Among inpatient subjects, summed up prevalence rates of severe and very severe psychological abuse, neglect, physical abuse,  and sexual abuse were 11.7%, 33%, 2.1% and 0%, respectively; for outpatient subjects these values were 3.8%, 11.2, 3.8% and 0%, respectively. Moreover, among inpatient subjects, prevalence rates of moderate psychological abuse, neglect, , physical abuse and sexual abuse were 27.7%, 27.7%, 24.5% and 4.3%, respectively; and for outpatient subjects these values were 30%, 27.5%, 11.2% and 0%, respectively. Subjects with ADHD suffered a higher rate of physical abuse, whereas, subjects with BMD suffered a higher rate of sexual abuse.
Conclusion: The prevalence of child abuse is highly prevalent in children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. It is recommended that this population be screened routinely for child abuse.

Keywords: child abuse,, prevalence,, clinical population