Social determinants of child abuse: evidence of factors associated with maternal abuse from the Egypt demographic and health survey

BACKGROUND: Child abuse or maltreatment is a significant global public health problem of unknown global prevalence. About 40 million children aged 0 - 14 years require health and social care globally. The prevalence, determinants, and trends of national or global rates of child abuse and maltreatment are largely unknown. METHODS: Data for this retrospective cross-sectional study were derived from the 2005 Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (2005 EDHS), and included 19474 women aged 15-49 years. Multivariate logistic regression analyses by stepwise regression, backward method were used to determine the independent contribution of the possible social determinants of child abuse, with the direction and magnitude of associations expressed as odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confident interval levels (95% CI). RESULTS: Identified determinants of child abuse included exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), justifying wife beating, exposure to generational IPV, and such factors as younger age of the women, male sex, partners’ lower education, poverty, residence in urban areas, younger children, and residence in households with 3 - 5 children. CONCLUSIONS: Experience of IPV, mothers’ justification of wife beating, and generational IPV were associated with elevated odds of child abuse. Findings indicate possible high levels of unmet child protection needs, and stress the need for professionals working with children to employ culturally-sensitive methods in investigating social determinants of child abuse.