The effect of child neglect and abuse prevention program for pregnants on awareness levels

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of child neglect and abuse prevention program based on Social Cognitive Theory on the awareness levels of pregnant women. The randomized controlled study with pretest-posttest control group was conducted in a family health center between July and December 2022 with a total of 30 pregnant women, 15 of which were in the experimental group and 15 in the control group. The "Social Cognitive Theory Based Child Neglect and Abuse Prevention Program" was applied to the participants in the experimental group. The data of the study were collected in three stages by using the Pregnant Information Form, the Newborn Information Form, the Child Neglect and Abuse Awareness Scale for Parents and the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. The pre-test just before the intervention, the post-test one month after the intervention, and the re-test three months after the intervention were applied to both groups. The groups showed a homogeneous distribution in terms of the individual characteristics of the pregnant. In the study, the total scores of the Child Neglect and Abuse Awareness Parents Scale of the experimental group increased significantly compared to the pretest, posttest and retest scores (p<0.05), while the control group did not differ (p>0.05). After the intervention, the Child Neglect and Abuse Awareness Parents Scale total scores of the experimental group were found to be significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05). In addition, according to the Child Abuse Potential Inventory pretest scores of the experimental group, posttest and retest scores were significantly decreased (p<0.05). As a result, it was found that the awareness of child neglect and abuse increased and the child abuse potential decreased significantly pregnant who participated in the prevention program. According to the re-test applied three months after the intervention, it can be said that the effect of the education on the increasing awareness of child neglect and abuse and decreasing child abuse potential of the pregnant continues. It is recommended that this training program based on Social Cognitive Theory, which was shown to be effective in the research, be included in the pregnancy follow-up program.