MALE-CHILD ABUSE & ECONOMICS: A PHARMACOECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL APPPROACH
Paul Andrew Bourne*, Rachael Irving, Angela Hudson-Davis, Charlene Sharpe-Pryce, Ikhalfani Solan, Shirley Nelson, Louise Brown, Cynthia Francis, Oddett Neita, Kirtli Walters, Taneka Gibson
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Caribbean masculine culturization, which is a by-product and legacy of European patriarchal epistemology, is responsible for the reluctance of males reporting been abused, especially sexual assaults. This seems to the rationale for the silence of male-child rape as well as lack of examination the phenomenon by researchers. Objective: This study seeks to evaluate various typologies of abuse occurring with male children and the interrelationship among the types of abuse and the macroeconomic indicators such as poverty rate, real GDP growth, unemployment andexchange rates. Materials and methods: 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, sex ratios and OLS regression estimates. Findings: The correlations revealed positively strong statistical bivariate correlations between various paired variables, with the greatest been 0.993 (i.e., rxy) for physical abuse and abandonment. Furthermore, a male-child who has been sexually abused would be 1) physically abused (i.e., rxy = 0.977, P < 0.0001), 2) experienced psychological abuse (i.e., rxy = 0.965, P < 0.0001), and 3) abandonment (i.e., rxy = 0.960, P < 0.0001). In addition, the economy has directly influenced cases of abuse among male children. In fact, as the unemployment rate increased so did sexual abuse (rxy = 0.895, P = 0.006) and psychological abuse (rxy = 0.880, P = 0.009); physical abuse (rxy = 0.940, P = 0.002) and abandonment (rxy = 0.967, P < 0.0001). Conclusion: The present study provided empirical evidence that male-child abuse has increased in Jamaica dating back to 2007. Male-child abuse has been coupled with the strong positive relationship between 1) cases of abuse and macroeconomic indicators; 2) sexual and psychological abuse; 3) sexual and physical abuse; 4) physical and psychological abuse; 5) abandonment and psychological abuse. Medical practitioners and clinical researchers must begin to include the economic environment in medical examination of patient history and well-being. Such an inclusion means that there is need to commence research in pharmacoeconomics and medical-economics of abuse.
Keywords: childhood sexual abuse, childhood maltreatment; childhood neglect, childhood physical abuse, mental health, pharmacoeconomics, public health.
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