This study intends to find ways to prevent child abuse by raising teacher’s awareness in child care centers and kindergartens and that of parents who raise young children. The study analyzed the responses of total of 2,386 persons: 1,139 parents and 1,247 teachers in childcare centers and kindergartens.
Unless they directly witness abusive actions, parents and teachers have a difficult time recognizing child abuse solely through symptoms. Parents and teachers often choose not to take action because they “did not view the symptom seriously.” Teachers seem to have relatively longer training hours for child abuse-related sessions. For the most common reason child abuse occurs in child care centers and kindergartens, teachers selected “job stress caused by poor working conditions.” As the number one method of preventing child abuse, teachers selected “manpower expansion” while parents selected “strengthening teacher training course.” For why child abuse occurs at home, both parents and teachers agreed on “parenting stress.”
Based on research results, this study proposes that our number one priority is to prevent child abuse rather than deal with it afterward. Second, a plausible child abuse policy should be oriented toward healthy growth and development of young children. To come up with a policy, we suggest two ways. First, for systematic and administrative support, we suggest a review of systems regarding child abuse, cooperation and system sharing between departments and executing institutions, medical system and big data utilization, elastic intervention of child abuse, utilization of family visit programs, foundation of objective standard for child abuse and education. Second, we suggest targeted, separate support for parents and teachers.
Keywords: child abuse in childcare center and kindergrten, child abuse at home, teachers' and parents' awareness of young child abuse
