Abstract:
Background: There is a societal need to institutionalize child protection mechanisms and services for monitoring of children subjected to abuse and exploitation. The aim of the study was to assess the occurrence of violence among orphaned children and its consequences on their physical and psychological health status.
Subjects & methods: a descriptive analytical study design was utilized at three randomly selected orphanage institutions-Menofia Governorate, Egypt. All children and adolescents from 6-18 years residents at the selected orphanage home (n=125) were included and thirty eight caregivers who accepted to fill the aggression behavior measurement. Six tools were used.
Results: Most of the studied children/adolescents (72.80%) reported exposure to physical abuse, while 71.20% exposed to psychological abuse. Also, 30.4% of all children had stitches and wound healing scars. Most of them (86.4%) had dental caries. Most of them (70.4%) had emotional disorders. The higher mean score of orphaned children who had panic attacks and agoraphobia were in the age group between 10-<14 years of orphaned studied children. Most of children (87.9%, & 88.8%) who reported exposure to physical and psychological abuse respectively, had moderate levels of anxiety, low self-esteem and aggression.
Conclusion: institutionalized young children and adolescents were vulnerable to several forms of abuse. Lack of quality of services provided in institutions was the main source of abuse. They reported exposure to physical and psychological abuse, while sexual abuse was not reported. The majority of them became underweight, were more prone to fractures, dental caries and emotional disorders. Most of those who exposed to physical and psychological abuses had moderate levels of anxiety, low self-esteem and aggression .
Recommendation: Maintaining child's safety and security, monitoring orphanage institute program and activities; staff training and guidance services, in addition, activating the child protection laws.
