Awareness on Girl Child Abuse Among Mothers of A Selected Community

INTRODUCTION: Girl Child Abuse is physically, emotionally, sexually abusing and neglecting the girl child by depriving her of universally accepted child rights. We aim to determine the awareness on girl child abuse among mothers so that necessary awareness programs could be recommended if found unsatisfactory. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done in Sundarbazar municipality of Lamjung district among randomly selecting 288 mothers who participated voluntarily in face to face interview that used structured questionnaire from 27(th) March to 23(rd) April, 2016. Data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferrential statistics like frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-square and linear by linear association. RESULTS: The findings of the study revealed that majority of mothers 224 (77.8%) had average level of awareness regarding girl child abuse and only 21 (7.3%) had good level of awareness with mean score±SD of 45.94±9.94 (total score-76). Awareness of mother on girl child abuse was found significantly associated with age, ethnicity, educational status, type of family, age at marriage and number of children at P<0.05. CONCLUSIONS: The mothers had average level of awareness regarding girl child abuse; however, significant proportion of mothers still lacks good level of awareness. A nationwide study of such kind using qualitative tools as well as conducting awareness raising activities focusing on girl child abuse and sexual abuse in girl child is recommended.