Child-reported violence, beliefs, and mental health: A cross-sectional quantitative study of 6-17-year-olds in South Africa.

BACKGROUND

Violence against children is a violation of children's rights and a threat to their health and development, but young children are not often asked about violence they experience.

OBJECTIVE

This study investigates the prevalence of violence reported by children in young childhood through adolescence, including how prevalence differs by age and gender, how children conceptualize violence, and associations with mental health.

PARTICIPANTS AND

SETTING

This study sampled children (n = 280; age 6-17; mean age: 8.8) from low-resource communities in South Africa who comprised a cross-sectional child sample within a longitudinal, multi-generational study.

METHODS

Children completed an interviewer-led child-friendly questionnaire that asked about their experiences of and views on violence, their mental health symptoms, and their life broadly. Analyses assessed prevalence across age and gender, plus associations between mental health symptoms and violence via multivariate regression.

RESULTS

Most children experienced emotional (56%) and physical abuse (55%) from a caregiver and repeated peer (53%) and sibling violence (21%), which was more prevalent for girls. Community violence was common (27%), and most children showed a moderate endorsement of violence norms. Younger children were more likely to experience physical abuse and higher peer violence scores, while adolescents were more likely to report suicidality. Regression models found peer, community, and domestic violence to be most consistently associated with poor mental health.

CONCLUSIONS

Preventing and responding to violence against children requires efforts to undo normalized acceptance of the issue and holistic efforts to address it across multiple contexts, such as children's homes, schools, and communities.