Peer-reviewed article
Factors Associated With Violence Against Children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression of Nationally Representative Data
Ilan Cerna-Turoff, Zuyi Fang, Anne Meierkord, Zezhen Wu, Juan Yanguela et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This systematic review examined 103 nationally representative studies from low- and middle-income countries to identify factors associated with violence against children. The analysis found that physical violence had no consistent risk factors across studies, while emotional violence was linked to lower household socioeconomic status, being female, and lower parental education. Sexual violence was specifically associated with being a girl. The authors highlight that data on child violence is unevenly distributed across countries and regions, limiting our understanding of prevention strategies.
Key points
- No specific factors were significantly associated with physical violence against children across studies
- Lower household socioeconomic status, being a girl, and primary education level of mothers and adults were associated with emotional violence
- Being a girl was a significant factor associated with sexual violence
- Data distribution was highly uneven across regions, countries, income status, factors, and violence types
- Greater emphasis needed on collecting representative data on general population and vulnerable subgroups
Limitations
The review was restricted to English-language publications and studies published between 1989-2018, which may exclude relevant research from non-English speaking regions. The uneven geographic and thematic distribution of data means findings may not be generalizable across all low- and middle-income countries.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: This systematic review and meta-regression sought to identify the relative importance of factors associated with physical, emotional, and sexual violence against children in low- and middle-income countries. Understanding of factors associated with violence is important for targeted programming and prevention on the population level. METHODS: We searched 17 electronic databases from 1989 to 2018 and reports from child violence surveys. Nationally representative studies that described evidence on potential factors associated with violence against children under 18 years old were included. The search was restricted to the English language. Factors were synthesized quantitatively using robust variance estimation, with 95% confidence intervals, for each violence type. RESULTS: We identified 8,346 unduplicated studies, and 103 publications met our eligibility criteria. The data distribution was uneven across region, country income status, factors, and violence types. Of the 94 eligible studies quantitatively synthesized, no specific factors were significant for physical violence. Lower household socioeconomic status, being a girl, and primary education of mothers and adults in the household were associated with emotional violence, and being a girl was associated with sexual violence. CONCLUSION: A broad spectrum of factors merit consideration for physical violence policy and prevention among the general population of children in low- and middle-income countries. Conversely, a tailored approach may be warranted for preventing emotional and sexual violence. Information is unequally distributed across countries, factors, and violence types. Greater emphasis should be placed on collecting representative data on the general population and vulnerable subgroups to achieve national reductions in violence against children.