Subjectivity of Child Abuse as Perceived by Nursing Students

Abstract

Child abuse is a serious social problem that not only threatens the health and well-being of children and adolescents, but also brings about the death of children through inadequate and improper management. The objectives of this study are to understand the subjectivity of child abuse perceived by nursing students, to describe the characteristics of each factor, and to understand the categorization of child abuse, by applying the Q-methodology. 14 nursing students who agreed to respond were asked to classify 44 statements about child abuse. The collected data was analyzed through the principal component factor analysis by the QUANL PC Program. In the results of this study, the nursing students’ perception of child abuse was classified into two factors. The factors of the subjectivity of child abuse were ‘Factor of solving causes for child abuse’ and ‘Factor of seeking for the support measures for abused children’. There were two factors, which explained 40.38% of total variance. The factor 1 was 28.34% while the factor 2 was 12.04%. As the factor 1 had 28.34% explanatory power, it could be viewed as the factor explaining child abuse the most. Among 14 research subjects, 11 people belonged to factor 1 and three people belonged to factor 2. The people belonging to each factor mean the group of people showing similar responses to child abuse. This study provided the basic data for understanding and educating the clinical nursing students’ perception of child abuse. This study also presented the necessity to establish the strategies for improving the perception of child abuse.