Child Abuse and Neglect Epidemiology in Secondary School Students of Yazd Province, Iran

Background: Child abuse is an issue that has many physical and psychological consequences. Objectives: This study was designed and conducted to investigate the current situation regarding child abuse, which can be used as a guideline for planning future interventions. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, analytic cross-sectional study on 700 Yazd secondary school students in 2013, using a standardized self-administered questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS v.19 software and appropriate statistical tests and logistic regression analysis. P values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Overall, 700 students (43%) were boys. Child abuse frequency was 93.5% (92.2% of boys and 94.4% of girls). The most common domains of child abuse among all students were neglect (83.8%), psychological (76.1%), physical (36.1%) and sexual (28.8 %), respectively. The most common domains of child abuse among female students were neglect (84.9%), psychological (82.3%), physical (32.5%) and sexual (31.5 %), and among male students, these were neglect (82.3%), psychological (67.9%), physical (41%) and sexual (25.3%). Demographic variables included substance abuse of parents, father’s education, parents living status and having other jobs, which were significantly related variables to child abuse and neglect (P value < 0.05). Conclusions: Our study is the first investigation performed on patients with LCH and its possible association with EBV in Iran. Considering the P = 0.004, which is statistically significant, the findings do support the hypothesis of a possible role for EBV in the pathogenesis of LCH. These results are in accordance with several previous investigations, with positive findings.