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. 2018 Jul 24;6(1):35.
doi: 10.1186/s40359-018-0244-1.

Multi-type child maltreatment: prevalence and its relationship with self-esteem among secondary school students in Tanzania

Adela A Mwakanyamale  1 , Dickson P Wande  2 , Yu Yizhen  3
Affiliations

Multi-type child maltreatment: prevalence and its relationship with self-esteem among secondary school students in Tanzania

Adela A Mwakanyamale et al. BMC Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: Child maltreatment is becoming predominantly multi-type in nature. Studies report that multi-type child maltreatment is associated with low self-esteem in adolescence and adulthood. There is a lack of published studies in Tanzania regarding multi-type child maltreatment and its relationship with self-esteem in adolescence. This study investigates the prevalence of multi-type child maltreatment and its relationship with self-esteem among secondary school students in Tanzania.

Methods: A cross-sectional, community-based study of secondary school students was conducted in randomly selected secondary schools in Tanzania. A multistage cluster sampling technique was employed to obtain the required number of study participants. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) questionnaire were used to measure the variables under investigation in the study. A total of 1000 participants (M: F ratio = 1.2:1) were studied. The mean age at presentation was 16.24 ± 7.36 years. The modal age group was 16-18 years (54.2%).

Results: The prevalence of multi-type child maltreatment was 97.6%. The prevalence of physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect emotional abuse and sexual abuse was 82.1, 26.2, 51.9, 21.8 and 24.7%, respectively. Females reported a higher prevalence of physical abuse (84.3%), physical neglect (28.0%) and sexual abuse (26.2%) than their male counterparts. Emotional abuse (53.3%) was reported more often by males. In terms of ACE, participants were classified as having zero (2.4%), one (22.4%), two (20.3%), three (18.2%), four (14.7%), five (12.8%) and over five (9.2%) types of maltreatment. With regard to multi-type child maltreatment, emotional abuse (X2 = 2.925, p = 0.001), emotional neglect (X2 = 2.329, p = 0.032), physical neglect (X2 = 22.508, p < 0.001) and physical abuse (X2 = 6.722, p = 0.036) were significantly associated with low self-esteem.

Conclusion: The current study demonstrates that multi-type child maltreatment exists in Tanzania and has adversely affected self-esteem among secondary school students. We believe that this study has significantly added to the body of literature on child maltreatment by investigating exposure to 10 types of ACEs as opposed to single types, as the majority of previous studies have investigated.

Keywords: Multi-type child maltreatment; Secondary school students; Self-esteem; Tanzania.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Before the commencement of the study, a letter of approval to conduct the study was sought by the authors and was provided by the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology institutional ethical review. Approval to conduct the research in secondary schools has been granted by Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) of the respective regions in Tanzania. Permission has been granted by respective secondary school authorities.

Participants were informed about the purpose of the study, and they were assured that their answers would only be used anonymously for research purposes on a voluntary basis.

All participants aged 18 and above were given information about the study, and they were asked for their voluntary participation. A written informed consent was administered to each participant; all participants read and signed written consent forms before being enrolled in the study.

For students under 18 years old, consent (agreement to participate in study) was sought and obtained from their parents or guardian.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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