UNDERSTANDING AND ADDRESSING CHILD ABUSE: CASE STUDY OF B40 COMMUNITY

Abstract

The issue of child abuse has never gone away from the social problems existed in Malaysia
since a long a time ago. The factors of child abuse cases are common in families with low
economic status. Therefore, this study aimed to look at the most significant relationship
factors, the most influential factors and the public's view of the efforts and measures taken to
prevent child abuse among B40 community. The researcher had identified four factors,
namely economic factors, lack of religious knowledge, household breakdown factors and
parental stress at workplaces. The research methodology used in this study was a mixed
qualitative and quantitative method with a total of 63 respondents. The instrument of the
study was through a questionnaire form distributed to the study sample around Gong Badak,
Kuala Nerus and the sample of the study within UniSZA (Sultan Zainal Abidin University).
The results of the survey data were analyzed using SPSS software, Statistical Package for
Social Science version 23. For this study, the researcher used descriptive analysis to analyze
the frequency and percentage of respondents while infrared analysis on correlation and
regression tests to see the relationship and influence of the variables. The overall results of
this study showed that the lack of religious knowledge had the strongest degree of
relationship and influence followed by economic pressure factor that both results in sig. p
<0.05 contributing to the prevalence of child abuse according to perceptions among B40
community. For the open-ended question, most of the respondents encouraged each member
of the community to study religious science more thoroughly and to understand the essence
of what Islam teaches in the context of building a successful family while maintaining good
relations with each other, especially parent-child relationships. Overall, the results of this
study showed that people are beginning to realize the importance of understanding and
practicing the teachings of Islam in their daily lives in order to enjoy a happy, secure, and
prosperous family life.