WHAT PENZA REGION TEENAGERS KNOW ABOUT CHILD ABUSE 

Galich Galina Olegovna, Senior lecturer, sub-department of pedagogy and psychology of preschool, primary
and speech pathology education, Pedagogical Institute named after V. G. Belinskiy, Penza State University
(40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia), Galich_galya@mail.ru

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Background. To prevent child and teenager abuse and to give assistance to its victims it is necessary to take into account what both subjects and objects of violent acts know about abuse. This aspect of the problem is poorly investigated. The objective of this research is to study what city and country youth know about abuse.
Materials and methods. We used an empirical method to conduct the research. A questionnaire consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from 5 to 10-grade school students was designed. The accuracy of differences was estimated according to the Fischer criterion.
Results. We have collected the empirical data reflecting the teenagers’ ideas of what abuse is and how to react to adults and peers’ violent actions. We compared the results of different gender and age groups of city and country school students.
Conclusions. The teenagers’ idea of abuse concerns mostly explicit aggressive behaviour. There is no difference in the way boys and girls understand the notion of abuse, but there is difference in younger and older adolescents’, as well as city and country school students’ ideas.

child abuse, teenagers, gender differences

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