Child abuse amongst disabled children: a prevalence study (based on children experiences and perception) in special institution in peninsular Malaysia

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Date
2009
Authors
Sallehuddin, Shamsul Amri
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Abstract
Child abuse is a serious phenomenon which has detrimental effect on individuals, societies and nations. Disabled children experiencing abuse face more serious effect compared with normal children. The purpose of this study is to reveal the prevalence rate of disabled children being abused and to identify the risk factor based on ecological model to the public. A cross sectional study was conducted in three groups of disabled children namely children with visual disability, children with hearing disability and children who are intellectually disabled. A total of 315 students from a special program under Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia were interviewed regarding their experiences of being abused. They were students from Sekolah Menengah Pendidikan Khas Bermasalah Penglihatan, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur, Sekolah Menengah Pendidikah Khas Vokasional Bermasalah Pendengaran at Shah Alam, Selangor and 13 schools which offer a special education program for children with learning disability at Kelantan. A set of questionnaire which has been validated and tested in the population study were used to gather the experiences and the risk factors from the disabled children. The analysis of data were performed separately based on the three respective groups of the disabled children. The results show a prevalence rate of abuse amongst the group with visual disability is 18.3 % (95% CI : 0.11, 0.25), the group with hearing disability, 50.8 % (95% CI : 0.42 : 0.59) and intellectual disability group, 20 % (95% CI : 0.13, 0.27). Majority of visual and learning disability children were abused physically whilst majority of hearing disability children abused sexually. Multiple logistic regressions revealed a significant relationship between abuse and risk factors such as individual, parent and mother for visual disability children. A significant relationship was established between abuse and risk factors such as children, mother and family for hearing disability children. For learning problem children, there were a significant relationship between abuse and individual and family risk factors. This study will provide a glimpse on abuse of disabled children in Malaysia and can be a helpful measure in handling the problem and helping the disabled children that have had experiences abused.
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Master
Keywords
Social science , Child abuse , Disabled children
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