JEDDAH, 1 April 2005 — A recent study of child abuse in Saudi Arabia identified disturbing trends that are prompting the researcher to call for strict laws to prevent parents from creating youngsters with serious psychological problems.
Dr. Ali Hassan Al-Zahrani, a psychological consultant for kids and teenagers at the Al-Amal Health Compound in Riyadh, has identified economic and social links to child abuse, which can include both physical or emotional punishment.
“In my study, I established that the ages of the parents, their levels of education and their jobs are determining factors if children are going to be healthy and well developed,” Dr. Al-Zahrani told Al-Watan newspaper.
He said that sadly many families don’t understand that there are differences between child abuse and child rearing. He stressed the importance of knowing the difference between the two. His study also identified various types of parental behavior that constitute child abuse.
According to the study, emotional abuse affects 26.6 percent of Saudi youngsters.
“Emotional child abuse means bad treatment that seeks to hurt a child’s feelings, such as insulting or scaring the child in different ways depending on different cultures,” Dr. Al-Zahrani said.
He also noted that 9.4 percent of the children sampled suffer medical negligence — ignoring children’s pains and not transferring them directly to hospitals when needed as well as ignoring increases of children’s body temperatures or arranging the recommended operations.
He also identified a form of child abuse that manifests itself in apathy or the failure of parents to offer the proper guidance all youngsters need to properly mature.
“Parental abuse has become common nowadays,” Dr. Al-Zahrani said. “Encouraging children not to go to school or not helping them do their homework is a form of abuse.”
The researcher proved in the study that there is a strong relationship between child abuse and family income as well as the number of family members. A parent’s job plays a great role in raising children in the right way. He said families with low incomes affect the children psychologically.
“Family members feel bad when they can’t afford to provide even the simplest things for their children,” Dr. Al-Zahrani said. “Some students from low-income families ask for more than is affordable — they want to be just like they’re rich,” the researcher said.
The study also examined an important part of child abuse that results in aggression and low self-esteem. He added that being aggressive is a result of hitting, slapping and sexual abuse and that low self-esteem is a clear result of emotional abuse.
Dr. Al-Zahrani is suggesting creating a statute to defend youngsters from abuse of all kinds. He suggested moves by the Ministry of Culture and Information to delete all television shows that encourage ignorance and child abuse. He also suggested earmarking a day each week for youngsters to go out and have fun to change the routine of life.
He concluded his study by advising every parent to use positive reinforcement rather than hitting and punishing to get healthy children — both physically and psychologically. It is a decision that parents must consciously make, and child abuse is a burden that society must bear.
