Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Child Abuse Negl. 2010 Oct 12;34(11):833–841. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2010.05.002

Table 2.

Prevalence of emotional abuse, neglect and physical hardship in rural South African youth

Never Women
Sometimes
Often/v.often Never Men
Sometimes
Often/v.often
n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%)
Emotional neglect
Any form of emotional neglect 825 (58.4%) 317 (22.4%) 272 (19.2%) 825 (60.4%) 330 (24.2%) 211 (15.5%)
I lived in different households at different
times
991 (70.0%) 350 (24.7%) 74 (5.2%) 961 (70.4%) 354 (25.9%) 51 (3.7%)
I spent time outside the home and none of
the adults at home knew where I was
1219 (86.2%) 138 (9.8%) 57 (4.0%) 1222 (89.4%) 114 (8.3%) 31 (2.3%)
One or both of my parents were too drunk
to take care of me
1211 (85.6%) 156 (11.0%) 48 (3.4%) 1193 (87.3%) 129 (9.4%) 45 (3.3%)
Emotional abuse
Any form of emotional abuse 641 (45.3%) 450 (31.8%) 324 (22.9%) 596 (43.6%) 469 (34.3%) 301 (22.0%)
I saw or heard by mother beaten by her
husband or boyfriend
911 (64.4%) 459 (32.4%) 45 (3.2%) 760 (55.6%) 546 (40.0%) 60 (4.4%)
I was told I was lazy or stupid or ugly by
someone in my family
1227 (86.7%) 166 (11.7%) 22 (1.6%) 1233 (90.2%) 118 (8.6%) 16 (1.2%)
I was insulted or humiliated by someone in
my family in front of other people
982 (69.4%) 365 (25.8%) 68 (4.8%) 1041 (76.2%) 291 (21.3%) 35 (2.5%)
Physical hardship
Any form of physical hardship 626 (44.2%) 295 (20.8%) 494 (35.0%) 726 (53.2%) 356 (26.0%) 285 (20.8%)
I was not washed 1011 (71.4%) 335 (23.7%) 69 (4.9%) 1153 (84.3%) 180 (13.2%) 32 (2.5%)
My clothes were very dirty 1178 (83.3%) 196 (13.9%) 41 (2.9%) 1276 (93.3%) 81 (6.0%) 10 (0.7%)
I was never warm enough 945 (66.8%) 427 (30.2%) 43 (3.0%) 903 (66.1%) 433 (31.7%) 31 (2.2%)
I did not have enough to eat 996 (70.4%) 349 (24.7%) 70 (4.9%) 1127 (82.4%) 206 (15.1%) 34 (2.5%)