Parental Knowledge and Practices Regarding Child Protection from Sexual Abuse: A Cross-Sectional Study in Kirtipur, Nepal

Abstract

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a universal and morally unacceptable issue with devastating immediate and long lasting effects. It is a fundamental breach of children's rights. This study was conducted to assess parental knowledge and practices regarding prevention of CSA among parents in Kirtipur municipality, Nepal.  A descriptive cross-sectional study with 163 parents chosen by purposive sampling form ward no 8 in Kirtipur Municipality. The data was collected using structured questionnaires, processed and findings were summarized using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage). More than two third of the respondents (72.4%) identified the behaviors that constitute CSA while 27.6% lacked proper and complete understanding about CSA. Similarly, more than half (58.9%) of respondents were unaware about the legal provisions under the Act relating to children, 2075. Although most parents (69.9%) emphasized educating their children to be the major preventive strategy, community level reporting of CSA cases remained low, with most incidents even being concealed. These results show that although parents generally know about CSA, there is a critical gap regarding legal literacy. Poor community accountability and unresponsible reporting behaviour of the participants may hinder effective child protection. Improving parental education, simplifying mechanisms used for reporting CSA and incorporating the age appropriate CSA prevention education in the school curricula are recommended to enhance child protection and encourage timely reporting of CSA.