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Review
. 2022 Aug;51(8):1755-1765.
doi: 10.18502/ijph.v51i8.10257.

Significance of Knowledge in Children on Self-Protection of Sexual Abuse: A Systematic Review

Zahra Rahimi Khalifeh Kandi  1 , Farbod Ebadi Fard Azar  2 , Farideh Khalajabadi Farahani  3 , Nammamali Azadi  4 , Morteza Mansourian  2
Affiliations
Review

Significance of Knowledge in Children on Self-Protection of Sexual Abuse: A Systematic Review

Zahra Rahimi Khalifeh Kandi et al. Iran J Public Health. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Sexual child abuse is a form of anti-social behavior with the children that cause potential harm to the health, development and dignity of the child. Knowledge of children about these issues can help to protect themselves against sexual abuse. This study aimed to review systematically available documents about the importance of knowledge on self-protection of sexual abuse in children.

Methods: In this systematic review, "sexual abuse", "self-protection" and "knowledge" were searched in Scopus, Google Scholar, Ovid, PubMed, and Science Direct as the search words, and after considering the inclusion criteria and excluding irrelevant articles, the relevant articles were included for data extraction. In the included studies, children were educated about sexual abuse, and questionnaires were designed to compare the impact of education and the level of knowledge in children before and after education.

Results: Overall, 19 articles with overall 6582 children were found that were published from 1987-2020. The main awareness of children was from parents, educators and then the media. Age of the child, education level of family, good relationship between family members, adequate education by school teachers in the form of educational programs and even media play an important role in increasing knowledge of children about sexual abuse. Education to children, on average, led to 77.43% more awareness and as a results self-protection against sexual abuse and rape.

Conclusion: Insufficient education or lack of knowledge about sexual abuse is a critical issue in children. Therefore, it is necessary to design educational programs to increase their knowledge about sexual abuse and strategies for self-protection in this age group.

Keywords: Child abuse; Children; Knowledge; Self-protection; Sexual abuse; Systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
Flow diagram of article selection procedure
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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