Global prevalence of physical and psychological child abuse during COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: With the onset of COVID-19, most countries issued lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus globally and child abuse was concerned under such a closed circumstance. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to estimate the prevalence of physical and psychological child abuse during COVID-19 and moderating variables for those abuses. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The rates of child abuse reported in 10 studies encompassing 14,360 children were used, which were gathered through a systematic review. METHODS: We reviewed previous studies systematically for the appropriate data and conducted a meta-analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of physical child abuse is estimated at 18 % and that of psychological abuse is estimated at 39 %. Regarding the unemployment rate, it reveals a high correlation with physical abuse (b = 0.09; p < 0.05) but not with psychological one (b = 0.03; no. sig). CONCLUSIONS: To prevent child abuse during the pandemic, it is suggested to minimize COVID-19-related economic damage to families and explore factors for reducing the gap between low and high-income countries.