Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the degree of awareness toward child abuse behaviors, causes of child abuse, and the necessity of the parent education for child abuse prevention in the parents of elementary school students. Four hundred fifty parents of elementary school students participated for this study. The results were as follows. First, the parents generally were aware of emotional abuse and physical abuse, but not aware of neglect. In the comparison, according to parental education level and family income, highly educated parents and high-income parents were more aware of both emotional abuse and neglect. Second, most of the parents agreed on the causes of child abuse presented in the survey except the cause of having an unexpected child. Third, most parents agreed on the necessity of parent education programs for child abuse prevention. The discussion for the results and strategies for child abuse prevention was provided.