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Effectiveness of an Educational Program on Teachers Awareness on Identifying and Reporting Suspected Cases of Child Abuse and Neglect in Primary Schools in Western Region

Wafaa Elarousy*

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) is considered a huge problem that leads to immediate harm and long-term consequences extending from the childhood till adulthood. Teachers play a great role in detecting and reporting CAN and can make contribution to the prevention and early detection of child abuse by reporting suspected cases of child abuse and neglect. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of educational program on teachers' awareness on identifying and reporting suspected cases of CAN in primary schools in Makkah region. A quasi experimental design was used. Educational program was developed and implemented for teachers from 4 different primary schools from Makkah region using convenient sampling. A structured self-report questionnaire was used before and after the educational program. Validity and reliability were tested for the questionnaire.

Results: It was found that there is a significant difference in the ability to identify CAN before and after the program. In relation to the reporting CAN, none of them oriented about the child hot line before compared with 84.9% of them after the program. The study concluded the need of involvement of the teachers in awareness activities of CAN to improve their abilities in recognizing and reporting suspected cases of CAN.