Abstract

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The issues of the psychiatric disorders and physical abuses resulting from sexual abuse on children are no different from those occurring in adults. In fact, studies have empirically and otherwise established a relationship between child sexual abuse and psychiatric disorder symptomatology, including depression. One went as far as to show that sexual abuse in childhood influences sexual dysfunctions in adulthood and others have established an association between sexual abuse and sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse, excessive drinking, higher divorce rate and suicidal behaviour. Inspite of the aforementioned findings, no single study has examined the typologies of child abuse and the economic environment, which is the rationale for this study. Objectives: This paper seeks to examine the role of economic indicators in child abuse and to guide medical practitioners, public health specialists and policy makers to better understanding of the issue and impact of child abuse, and solutions to address the matter from a futuristic vantage point. Materials and Methods: This study used the statistical bulletin published by the OCR to obtain data on the typologies of cases on childhood abuse in Jamaica. In addition to data from the OCR, data were obtained from various governmental departments including the Bank of Jamaica, Statistical Institute of Jamaica, and the Planning Institute of Jamaica. Data were recorded, stored and retrieved using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, Version 21.0. The level of significance that is used to determine statistical significance is less than 5% (0.05) at the 2-tailed level. Frequency, per cent change, rates, and probabilities were computed on an annual basis for the typologies of childhood abuse as well as descriptive statistics. The descriptive statistics were reported as mean±SD, with 95% confidence interval. Findings: Over a seven year period, the average number of reported cases of sexual abuse was 1,912±1,108, 95% CI: 887-2,938 compared to 773±522, 95% CI: 290-1,256 cases of emotional abuse, 1,647±882, 95%CI: 831-2463 reported cases of physcial abuse and 1,630±1,012, 95%CI: 693-2,566 reported cases of children exhibiting behavioural problems. The exchange rate and poverty rates are factors of reported cases of children being sexually abused in Jamaica – P < 0.5, with the factors accounting for 82.6% of the variability (i.e., adjusted R2) in reported cases of sexual abuse in children – F = 164.7, P < 0.0001. OLS estimates that children who experienced sexual abuse were strongly likely to exhibit behavioural problems (beta = 0.542) and that exchange rate positively influence behavioural problems in children (beta = 0.407), with sexual abuse having a greater influence on reported cases of children exhibiting behavioural problems (adjusted R2 = 0.951) than the exchange rate (adjusted R2 = 0.044). Conclusion: The continued exclusion of economy from the study of medicine leaves a huge gap in the treatment of illnesses, especially psychiatric and psychological disorders. Medical practitioners, in screening people, must begin to include the state of the economy, poverty status of the family, unemployment of parents and exchange rate.

Keywords: Child maltreatment, child abuse, sexual abuse, emotional ill-treatment, child neglect, behavioural problems, psychiatric disorders, psychoneuroimmunology.