Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Upto to 70 percent of the victims of child abuse in Saudi Arabia are offspring of highly educated parents, the Arabic daily Al-Madina reported on Saturday quoting a recent study.

The study was conducted by Mawaddah Society for Family Development in Makkah. It said some of the abusive parents were post-graduates and holders of higher degrees.

The study, titled «The impact of verbal abuse on the conduct of children», said about 57 percent of the abused children came from stable families and from 60 to 70 percent of the parents were at least university graduates.

Faisal Al-Samanoudi, chairman of the society›s board of directors, said the study covered about 47 families with abused children.

He said the abused children were carefully monitored and closely observed for a year before the study was released.

«About 68 percent of the verbally abused children hailed from families with sound financial backgrounds and some of their parents were highly educated,» he said.

About 53 percent of the children in the sample were aged between 5 and 15 years.

Samanoudi said the domestic violence will have an adverse effect on the children making them cowardly, obstinate, secluded, hesitant, of weak personalities, lacking initiative and creativity, not feeling secure and unable to express themselves.

He said most of the time the abused children did not do well in school, were unable to take correct decisions, were unappreciative of their parents, rejected their guidance and looked for a role model outside the family.

The chairman said the verbally abused children were unable to communicate with their colleagues, had no desire for education, abusive of the others and were rebellious.

He said the study stressed the role of the media in teaching the parents the correct methods of upbringing children. It said parents needed to be more merciful and compassionate to their children. The punishments should be reformatory, not vindictive, in nature and should make the children feel that the punishment they received was due to their bad conduct.

Mawaddah study reveals alarming facts