G476(P) The ignored pervasive form of emotional abuse: intimidating young children from doctors and injection

Abstract

<sec><st>Background</st> Every child seems to have the normal level of fears towards certain subjects that started in early childhood and act as an assurance policy to protect the child from harm. Parents play the major role in reassuring their children and protecting them from fear and anxiety, on the other hand, they may behave to cause child fear by overprotection or sometimes by intimidating them to obey certain commands or to stop the annoying act. The acts of child intimidating behaviour by their parents constitute a pervasive and ignored form of emotional abuse. The aims of this study were to assess the psychological impact of the parenting trends towards intimidation of their children from doctors and injections and to assess its relation to some demographic variables (parenting relationship, parental ages, parental level of education, sex of the child, and if the child has chronic illness) and to the refusal of the medications. </sec> <sec><st>Methods</st> The study followed the descriptive analytical method and included the parents of 103 kindergarten children aged 3–6 years. Data collected using the scale of parenting trends in the period of September 2015 to January 2016. </sec> <sec><st>Results</st> Intimidating child from doctor and injections has a highly negative impact on the child psychologically. There are no significant differences in the degree of intimidation of the child from doctors and injections attributable to the parenting relationship (father, mother), the age of the parents, their educational level, the child sex, and the presence of chronic illness. 59% of the parents link between this trend and the child refusal of the medications. </sec> <sec><st>Conclusions</st> Intimidation of the children from doctor and injections has a highly negative impact on the children psychologically and may contribute to their refusal of medications. No significant differences attributable to the demographical variables. </sec>