Opinions and attitudes of some parents in Ilorin , north-central Nigeria , towards child abuse and neglect

It is therefore not surprising that a substantial proportion of the population are faced with significant financial difficulties. This abject poverty has led to various survival ploys that abuse children, such as child labour, hawking, begging, children working as house-helps, and in some cases sending away children for adoption to live with and work for better-off relatives or friends, who may give preferential treatment to their own children.

The few studies on child abuse in Nigeria have focused on the victims rather than the perpetrators, who are generally adults and often the parents of the afflicted children.Little is known about the opinions of the parents on child abuse in the northern parts of the country as there is a dearth of literature on this matter.We therefore conducted the present study to address the issue in this part of the country.

Objectives
Our aim was to assess the opinions and attitudes of subjects concerning child abuse and neglect, and identify sociodemographic factors associated with child abuse.

Study design and population
This was a cross-sectional study carried out among the residents of Oja-Oba community in the Ilorin-West local government area of Kwara State in northern Nigeria.It is representative of other districts in this area, and represents people of different social classes.
In the absence of a recent, detailed household census, we estimated by direct counting, with the help of some locals, that there were 672 households in the community.We selected the subjects using a systematic sampling technique by choosing every third person of the household.We interviewed one parent in a family; where both parents were present, we asked the couple to choose one of them by consensus.Where there was more than one family in a household, we interviewed one parent from each family.We excluded all those who refused to give consent.In all, 260 subjects participated in the study.

Measurements
Subjects were interviewed using a questionnaire designed by the authors.The questionnaire had 2 sections: a socio-demographic section and a child abuse section.The items in the second section included questions about hawking, methods for correcting the child, child labour, and sending the child to work as a househelp.Other questions concerned the provision of basic needs and school items, reasons for abusing/neglecting the child, and possible solutions to child abuse/neglect problems.The design of the questionnaire was based on the authors' personal experience while working in the child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of the University College Hospital, Ibadan and the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Kaduna, Nigeria, and a review of previous studies of child abuse and neglect.We administered the instruments to 20 randomly selected adults in the area and repeated the exercise 2 weeks later to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items (Cronbach's α 0.724; interitem correlation 0.116).These 20 subjects were not included in the study.
The Kwara State Ministry of Health gave approval for the study, and the participants gave informed consent.A total of 17 parents refused the interview.Five of them said they had an appointment elsewhere which could not be sacrificed for our study, 8 women said they would not participate without the permission of their husbands who had travelled away from Ilorin during the time of interview, 1 woman said we were agents of the government, and the remaining 3 gave no reason for their refusal.

Statistical analysis
Version 13 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-13) software was used for analysis.Descriptive statistics were calculated for the variables, which included means and standard deviation.Frequency distribution and cross-tabulations were generated, the t-test and chi-square (χ 2 ) test were used to investigate associations between various forms of child abuse, and continuous and categorical variables respectively and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to determine the true associations between socio-demographic variables and various forms of child abuse.A p value of <0.05 was taken as statistically significant.

Socio-demographic characteristics
The socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects are shown in Table I.About 73% of the subjects were below the age of 40 years, 60% were female, 7% were unemployed and 37% were either separated, divorced or widowed.About 11% had no formal education, and 30% earned more than N20 000 a month.
One hundred and forty-seven (56.5%) subjects recognised that beating a child excessively, sending a child to hawk goods, starving a child, early exposure of a child to sex, and neglecting the child's educational, basic and health needs are various forms of child abuse/neglect.

Forms of child abuse
Seventy-nine (30.4%) subjects admitted that they send their children to hawk goods on streets and highways.Older parents articles (p<0.001),those who are unemployed (p=0.020),those who are not married (divorced, separated, widowed, never married) (p=0.014),those who had ≥3 children (p<0.001), and those with a low level of education (p<0.001) and low income (p<0.01)were significantly associated with sending children to sell goods (Table II).
In addition to hawking, children are used as labour, e.g.working on farms, carrying goods, and cleaning shops.Sometimes this work is done during school hours.Eighty-nine (34.2%) parents said that children must work before being fed or given their basic needs.Parents who were old (>40 years of age), unemployed and not married (p<0.001), and those who had at least 3 children and a low education (p<0.001) and low income (p<0.02)were significantly more likely to believe that a child must work (Table II).
Twenty-seven (10.4%) respondents said they could send or have sent their children to work as house-helps.There was no statistically significant difference in terms of age, gender, marital status, occupational status, income and education between those who could and those who could not send their children to work as housemaids/boys (p>0.05).
One hundred and thirty-six (52.3%) parents reported that they beat their children to correct unwanted or unacceptable behaviour.They described it as 'gentle beating' -but the sense of what constituted a gentle beating ranged over flogging, giving a 'few' strokes of the cane, and a 'gentle' slap.Some respondents, however, admitted that sometimes they were unable to regulate the extent of beating.Being old (p=0.028),or unemployed (p=0.002), and of low education (p<0.05) were significantly associated with disciplining a child by beating (Table II).
After logistic regression analysis, older age, unemployment, higher number of children and low education were predictive of sending children to hawk.In addition to these correlations, being unmarried predicted the use of children as labour; while older age, unemployment and low education were predictive of beating a child to correct unwanted behaviour (Table III).
Only 7 (2.7%) of our subjects admitted that their children had been sexually abused.They added that adults who were not members of the family were involved in these acts.None of these subjects reported the incidents to the police because they did not want their children to be stigmatised.Three (1.2%) women said that they could give their daughters away for marriage before the age of 18 years if their husbands agreed to such an arrangement, but all respondents said they would not encourage their children to involve themselves in illicit sexual behaviour for any reason.
All the respondents denied ever asking their children to guide beggars on the street.
Ninety-six per cent of the parents reported that they provided their children with basic educational and health needs, and 90% believed that both parents should be involved in the care of their children.
Respondents recognised the following factors as causes of child abuse/neglect: single parenthood (80.4%), poverty/ unemployment (72.3%), cultural factors/lack of education (26.2%), and the child being stubborn or difficult (1.2%).About 52% suggested that the government should provide jobs and improve the economy, 42% wanted the government to provide free education, while only 5.8% said that there should be legislation against child abuse.

Discussion
Only 29.6% of our subjects earned more than N20 000 (about US$168) per month.This finding is similar to an earlier report on the population of Nigeria. 1 This low income has to cater for the parents and their children.Most parents had at least 3 children.
About 30% of parents send their children to hawk goods, which is in keeping with earlier reports. 3,15This is understandable in view of the level of poverty.Parents reported that they needed to do this in their struggle to survive.Older parents were more likely to send children to engage in street trading, possibly because they had more children and consequently more financial load.In our study, all parents ≥40 years old had ≥3 children.Those who were unemployed tried to obtain income from their children's efforts, using the income for themselves and the children.Parents with a low level of education were largely unemployed.Street trading has dangerous consequences.Some children are knocked down by vehicles and injured, 4 some are lured by adults into sexual acts, 16 and some are tricked into taking psychoactive substances.
Child labour is similar to hawking.Thirty-four per cent of the parents believed that a child must work before being fed or given basic needs.Their reasons were to prevent the child from becoming a 'lazy adult' and to teach him how to live an independent life should the parents die.The factors associated with this opinion are similar to those of street trading and hawking.It is common practice for parents to train children how to be independent.
However, it is improper for parents to engage their children in any trade or activity that prevents them from attending school.
Older parents were more likely to use beating as a disciplinary method because of the cultural belief that children can only articles and not returning home 'early'.Ebigbo 16 and Olaleye 6 reported that severe punishment was applied in Nigeria both for minor misdemeanours and serious offences, and is culturally approved in this part of the world.But it is not as effective as positive reinforcement, and there is a tendency for the child to react with aggressive behavior. 18It is therefore more desirable to adopt a method of behaviour modification which is safer and more effective, to correct unwanted behaviour.
As many as 10% of the parents have sent (or can send) their children to work as housemaids or houseboys.These children are expected to generate income for the whole family; while doing so, they are deprived of the opportunity to attend school or learn a trade.Children as young as 7 years have been sent out to work as housegirls. 19e fact that only 7 (2.7%) parents reported that their children have been sexually abused suggests that CSA is under-reported.
In addition, none of our subjects admitted that they had been involved in any form of sexual abuse of their children. 9Olley interviewed 2 290 school-going adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria, and found a 55% prevalence of CSA among them.He also reported that 36% of the abuse occurred within the family.It is possible that parents are not aware of such abuse because the children do not report it -a child may be reluctant to disclose sexual abuse because of societal taboos against sexual behaviour 20 or stigma associated with being sexually abused. 4other possibility is that the parents in our study deliberately withheld knowledge of CSA, even when it had occurred.

articles 29 Table I . Socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects
articles Volume 16 No. 1 March 2010 -SAJP