Evaluation of the level of knowledge and awareness of child abuse and neglect in senior students of Ankara University Faculty of medicine

Objective: This study was conducted with the aim of identifying factors which may influence the knowledge and awareness of senior medical school students regarding child abuse and neglect, who will play a crucial role in recognizing and preventing child abuse and neglect throughout their professional careers. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with senior students studying at Ankara University Faculty of Medicine. To evaluate students' knowledge and awareness of child abuse and neglect, "Child Abuse and Neglect Knowledge Test (CANK-T)" and "Child Abuse and Neglect Awareness Scale (CANA-S)" were utilized in the study together with a 16-question sociodemographic data questionnaire. The IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 package software (IBM Company, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to statistically analyze the data. Results: 300 senior medical students participated in the study, 174 (58.0%) of whom were female and 126 (42.0%) were male. 248 (82.7%) of the students who participated in the research stated that they had received training on child abuse and neglect, and it was observed that 97.6% (n=242) stated that they had obtained education primarily during college. While the rate of those who stated that they had received education through activities such as seminars, conferences, symposiums, etc. was 11.7% (n=29), the rate of those who claimed to have received education through materials such as journals, articles, etc. was only 7.3% (n= 18). In the question about how competent they think they are on the subject, the students generally (52.0%) found themselves partially sufficient. Only 22% of them thought they were very competent or sufficient, while 88.7% (n=266) of the students stated that they needed to be informed more about the subject. It was found that 97 (32.3%) of the participants reported that they had encountered a child who had been abused and neglected. While the students' overall median score on CANA-S was 83, the median number of correct answers obtained from CANK-T was 36. The correlation between CANA-S scores and the number of correct answers given in CANK-T was found to be significant, and it was determined that students with higher awareness of the subject also had greater knowledge. It was also observed that female students scored significantly higher than male students in both CANK-T and CANA-S (p=0.003 and p<0.001). In addition, it was discovered that those who expressed a need to be informed scored statistically considerably higher on the CANK-T than those who did not. Conclusions: Our study, which aims to identify potential contributing factors and evaluate students' knowledge and awareness about child abuse and neglect using two different current scales, has determined a substantial association between knowledge and awareness. The fact that students' awareness of the subject increases as their level of knowledge improves, highlighted the importance of education once again and gave rise to the notion that students with higher awareness put more effort to obtain information. It is also clear that supporting medical students to increase their awareness and knowledge through extracurricular activities like symposiums, conferences, etc. will be beneficial for them to be able to act appropriately and effectively in terms of child abuse and neglect when they enter the workforce. Keywords: Child abuse, neglect, medical student, knowledge level, awareness