Prevention of child abuse: design of a socio-educational intervention in preschool education contexts

Abstract

Introduction: Throughout history and across all civilizations, child abuse has been closely linked to social, political, and religious factors. However, only a fraction of abused children ever receive support from healthcare professionals. Children who have suffered abuse are more likely to abuse others as adults, thus perpetuating the cycle of violence from one generation to the next.

Objective: To train teaching and healthcare staff in the early identification of risk situations and suspected cases of child abuse.

Methods: A two-phase applied research study was conducted at the Mi Flor del Festival Children's Center in the municipality of Los Palacios, Pinar del Río province, from January to June 2024. The first phase was descriptive, and the second phase proposed an intervention using a prior SWOT analysis. Study population: 50 workers. Non-probability purposive sample: Thirty-seven people involved in early childhood education and health who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study.

Results: In the first stage, most of the participants were women between 17 and 34 years of age (59.45%) who were either preschool teachers or teaching assistants with less than ten years of work experience (72.97%). Physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, and alcohol poisoning were the most well-known types of abuse (100%), while social abuse and Munchausen syndrome were completely unknown. All participants acknowledged having an inadequate and often erroneous level of knowledge. The second stage involved a redesigned educational intervention on child maltreatment aimed at preschool educators and nurses.

Conclusions: The educational intervention introduced, through training, changes in educational and health methodology.