Violência contra crianças na cidade de Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brasil: a prevalência dos maus-tratos calculada com base em informações do setor educacional

• Autor(a) principal: Faleiros, Juliana Martins
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Matias, Alessandra da Silva Araújo, Bazon, Marina Rezende
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Cadernos de Saúde Pública
• Texto Completo: https://cadernos.ensp.fiocruz.br/ojs/index.php/csp/article/view/3935
• topic: Violência Doméstica; Maus-Tratos Infantis; Prevalência

The official statistics on child abuse fail to reflect reality, since many cases are not reported. The current study aimed to estimate the real prevalence of child abuse in children 0 to 10 years of age enrolled in public and private daycare centers and schools in the city, using information obtained from teachers and staff, based on the premise that they are well-positioned to identify cases, and then to compare this estimated prevalence to the official rate. The instrument used was the Epidemiological Manual, and the random, representative sample consisted of 305 teachers, responsible for 6,907 children. The resulting prevalence was 5.7%, compared to 0.3% as calculated by data from the Tutorial Councils, thus corroborating the hypothesis that the official rate merely represents the tip of the iceberg. The most frequent forms of abuse identified by both the public and private schools were neglect and psychological abuse, generally considered less important, since they are viewed as less serious. The problems were also shown to become worse as the children grew older, indicating the importance of network collaboration for detection, notification, and early intervention in such situations, under the logic of secondary prevention.