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

• Published in: Child abuse & neglect Vol. 135; p. 105984
• Main Authors: Lee, Hyun, Kim, EunKyung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2023; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Child; Child Abuse; Child abuse & neglect; Children; Communicable Disease Control; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Economic factors; Emotional Abuse; Humans; Low income groups; Meta Analysis; Pandemics; Physical Abuse; Physical child abuse; Prevalence; Psychological abuse; Psychological child abuse; Systematic review; Unemployment; COVID-19; Systematic review; Physical child abuse; Meta-analysis; Psychological child abuse
• ISSN: 0145-2134; 1873-7757
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105984

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. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of physical and psychological child abuse during COVID-19 and moderating variables for those abuses. The rates of child abuse reported in 10 studies encompassing 14,360 children were used, which were gathered through a systematic review. We reviewed previous studies systematically for the appropriate data and conducted a meta-analysis. 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). 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.