Attitudes of family physicians towards reporting child abuse and solution suggestions: A cross-sectional study

Child abuse is a significant public health problem encompassing any act or omission that harms a child's physical, emotional, or sexual integrity, or negatively impacts their healthy development and dignity. This research aims to examine the attitudes of family physicians practicing in Turkey regarding reporting child abuse and their approaches to addressing this process.

This descriptive cross-sectional research was carried out with 314 family physicians from all seven geographical regions of Turkey using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of two parts: the first part section assessed participants' sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes, behaviors, and proposed solutions concerning child abuse and neglect; the second part incorporated the Scale for Determining the Attitudes of Healthcare Workers Toward Reporting Child Abuse. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics along with Independent Samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Mann-Whitney U tests.

It was found that 56.7 % of family physicians had encountered child abuse and neglect cases at least once in their professional life, and 57.6 % of them had not made official reports before. It was determined that 59.9 % of physicians did not receive any training on child abuse. Reasons for physicians' failure to report included lack of knowledge of the procedure and fear that the child could be harmed by family. A statistically significant difference was found between the participants' age, length of professional experience, awareness of legal processes, and their attitudes toward reporting child abuse (p < 0.05).

While family physicians' knowledge of child abuse was generally sufficient, their reporting attitudes were found to be low. It is essential to enhance family physicians' knowledge and awareness of effective child abuse reporting, clarify procedures, and strengthen legal mechanisms to protect children.