Influencing Factors of Clinical Nurses' Knowledge of Child Abuse Reporting, Perception of Child Abuse, and Moral Sensitivity on the Attitude toward Reporting Child Abuse

임상간호사의 아동학대 신고 지식, 아동학대 인식 및 도덕적 민감성이 아동학대 신고 태도에 미치는 영향

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting clinical nurses' attitude toward reporting child abuse. Methods: The participants in this study were 200 clinical nurses. Data were collected as structured self-report questionnaires through the online portal site for nurses from November 24 to December 7, 2021. The questionnaires included general characteristics, knowledge of child abuse reporting, perception of child abuse, moral sensitivity, and attitude toward reporting child abuse. The SPSS/WIN 25.0 program was used for data analysis which included descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression. Results: As knowledge of child abuse reporting, perception of child abuse and moral sensitivity were increased, the attitude toward reporting child abuse was significantly increased. Multiple regression analysis showed that knowledge of child abuse reporting (β=.32) and perception of child abuse (β=.21) were significant influencing factors of attitude toward reporting child abuse. Conclusion: These findings implied that knowledge of child abuse reporting and perception of child abuse would be related to attitudes toward reporting child abuse among clinical nurses. Therefore, it is necessary to develop education programs and public policies to improve the knowledge and perception of child abuse reporting among clinical nurses so that attitudes toward reporting child abuse can be improved.