Staff Responses When Parents Hit Children in a Hospital Setting

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics
• Child Abuse Prevention
• Medical Ethics

Background:

• Physical punishment of children is linked to adverse outcomes and child abuse.
• Most medical professionals condemn physical punishment.
• Parent-to-child hitting occurs in medical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• Examine the prevalence of parent-to-child hitting in medical settings.
• Investigate the intervention behaviors of medical staff who witness this practice.

Main Methods:

• Anonymous survey administered to staff at children's and general medical centers.
• Descriptive statistics used to analyze staff experiences.
• Logistic regression used to predict intervention behaviors.

Main Results:

• 50% of physicians, 24% of nurses, and 27% of direct care staff witnessed parent-to-child hitting in the past year.
• Most physicians, nurses, and direct care staff intervened sometimes or always.
• Nondirect care staff rarely intervened; lack of knowledge on how to respond was a common reason for non-intervention.

Conclusions:

• Parent-to-child hitting is witnessed by many medical center staff.
• While some staff intervene, many need training on identification and response strategies.
• Training can improve staff intervention in cases of parent-to-child hitting.