Child abuse in low‐ and middle‐income countries during the COVID‐19 pandemic; the need for culture‐based interventions

Dear Editor,

1.

Child abuse has always been a worrying situation. With the spread of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the implementation of social distancing, there have been reports of more child abuse than ever before (Dave & Yagnik, 2020). On the other hand, while it seems that the financial, mental, and physical stress due to COVID‐19 can be associated with increased child maltreatment, according to some studies, school closures to better control pandemic conditions have been associated with a reduction in reports of child abuse (Baron et al., 2020).

In this regard, recommendations have been made to better control the conditions mentioned during the pandemic. These include identifying people at risk for possible preventive measures, using protocols to ask questions about home experience safely, and advising reporting to school staff such as counselors (Thomas et al., 2020).

According to studies, the situation of child abuse in many low‐middle‐income countries has always been in an unfavorable situation, and concerns about the psychiatric problems of future generations in these countries have always been raised. The biggest concern is when the previous unfavorable situation worsens with the addition of the problems associated with the recent pandemic. On the other hand, the uncertainty of the timing of the recent pandemic control has added to concerns (Badrfam et al., 2020; Dave & Yagnik, 2020).

Restrictions on monitoring, the involvement of a significant portion of health personnel in pandemic‐related care, and the lack of efficient counseling systems with an adequate number of counselors are some of the problems facing these countries. It seems comprehensive programs are needed in this field in accordance with the structural and cultural conditions of each of the low‐ and middle‐income countries. Identifying culturally specific risk factors and planning for their proper control by health policymakers in these countries should be part of this approach. Even paying attention to the different needs of parents in various fields and planning to meet them can be effective in this regard (Ward et al., 2016).

Accelerating such an approach can help to better control the current unfortunate situation. Culture‐based education for parents and children, use of media opportunities in this field due to the current limitations for face‐to‐face education, implementation of a parent support program such as financial support from governments and international support, especially from global reference institutions and establish culturally consistent social interventions such as child abuse reduction campaigns can be helpful in this regard.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.