Resumen

FERNANDEZ COUCE, Gladys; ALONSO CASTILLO, Amaris  y  RODRIGUEZ IGLESIAS, Zoraida. Hidden abuse in adolescents. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2006, vol.32, n.3, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3127.

Background: in recent years, there have been publications in Cuba about child abuse and some favoring and conditioning factors of ill-treatment have been discussed. Objectives: this paper researches this problem in adolescents from a boarding school so as to identify the mentioned factors. Methods: the total number of adolescents from the selected school (n=80) were included. Data were collected from a specific questionnaire about child abuse, the student's records and the mark registration books of the school. The school, the parents and the students gave their consent. Results: difficulties in making satisfactory links among the mother, the father and the child were observed in 73,8 % of students; 61,3 % used to live in families with history of family dysfunction and 28,8% live under crowding conditions. Of the ill-treated adolescents, 23,9 % had low performance at school. Among the hidden forms of child abuse, battering was found in 88,8 % and psychological abuse in 75 % of adolescents. Sexual abuse was only confirmed in one case. Seventy percent of cases were submitted to insults. Low schooling and financial hardships of attackers were not favoring factors of violence. Conclusions: difficulties in making suitable family links was the most important conditioning factor of child abuse, followed by family dysfunction. Learning difficulties and low performance at school were found to be sequelae of child abuse, which is a health problem requiring research and more attention

Palabras clave : Child abuse; hidden abuse; intradomestic violence; adolescents.