| dc.description.abstract | Background: Child maltreatment poses a great danger to the lives of child ren. This is because its impacts do not only stop in their childhood but also
later into adulthood. Child maltreatment has been generally known to refer to
physical, emotional, child neglect, and sexual abuse. In many contexts, child ren are taken to be minors and considered not to be aware of the various
maltreatments they may be exposed to by their caregivers and strangers. This
study therefore sought to explore the lived experiences of maltreated children
in Sheema District and Mbarara City in South Western Uganda. Methods:
We conducted 8 key informant interviews with government civil servants and
6 with officials of civil society organizations carrying out child protection
work. Again, 6 Focus group discussions were conducted with children. The
study participants were purposively selected because of the knowledge they
had about the study topic. They were interviewed through audio recordings
and their views were transcribed verbatim where thematic analysis was used.
Results: The results hinged on four themes namely child neglect (expressed
in terms of absentee parents/fathers), emotional abuse (reflected in terms of
abusive language and words that shame or harm children) and physical abuse
(expressed through corporal punishments and sexual abuse). Conclusions:
Maltreated children go through a lot of emotional torture, physical harm,
sexual abuse and neglect. We recommend interventions geared towards mitigating child maltreatment and its effects be propagated for wholistic and complete healthy child development | en_US |
