Brazilian Parents’ Knowledge on Abusive Head Trauma

Abstract

Abusive head trauma (AHT) may be associated to a lack of knowledge of parents and caregivers concerning
child development. This study intended to investigate parental knowledge regarding the crying of babies, how parents deal with a crying baby and the consequences of shaking a baby to make it stop crying. Participants were 83 mothers and 7 fathers of newborns who responded to the Crying Baby Questionnaire. Results suggest a lack of knowledge of AHT, especially regarding its severity. Furthermore, 34.4% of participants reported that they would shake their babies to make them stop crying. These results highlight the need to develop interventions for parent training on AHT, particularly during the prenatal period in order
to increase parental knowledge and to contribute to the prevention of this form of child maltreatment.