The neglect contributing factors on street children in urban & semi urban area in Indonesia

Background: Child neglect is a form of child abuse and it is an act of violence against the children under 18 years old. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2002, stated that out of 3,193,000 kids in... [ view full abstract ]

Background: Child neglect is a form of child abuse and it is an act of violence against the children under 18 years old. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2002, stated that out of 3,193,000 kids in US, 896,000 of them were confirmed being maltreated. This study aims to determine the difference between factors that contribute to number of child neglect in Indonesia.

Method: The method used in this study was comparative analytic cross sectional. Subject was selected purposively. The inclusion criteria were street children from 12 to 18 years old, who are living in urban and rural area. The exclusion criteria were street children who refused to participate. Bening Nurani foundation represents the rural area whereas Anti Narcotics and Crime Generation foundation represents the urban area. The data was collected through questionnaires.

Result: The number of children undergoes interpersonal relationship in rural are 2.13% and in urban are 6.38%. Children who undergo verbal harsh discipline and poverty in rural and urban are 19.15%:36.17%; 0:8.51% respectively. Caretakers who are substance abuse in rural and urban area are 14.89% and 2.13%. From the chi square calculation for parent’s substance abuse, it shows that there is difference in rural and urban area, which is P=0.029. The low socioeconomic status in rural area are 2.13% whereas in urban are 8.51%.

Conclusion: Parent’s substance abuse is the contributing factor to child neglect in rural are more than in urban.