Using comic strips to understand perceptions and feelings of children hospitalized due to child physical abuse

Abstract

Introduction: Child physical abuse is a recurrent practice that harms the physical and emotional development of children. Objective: To understand the perceptions and feelings of a group of children who have been physically abused by their parents or caretakers. Materials and Methods: A descriptive qualitative study was conducted using comic strips to respond to the inductive stimulus of what comes to mind when children are mistreated. Results: Feelings of love and hate, guilt, sadness, resentment, desire for vengeance and shame were experienced, as well as the perception of physical abuse as a harmful attitude. Conclusions: Children exhibited anxiety, shyness, aggressiveness, introspection and a tendency to social isolation since child physical abuse represents a tragic episode that would ultimately lead them to death, which is why it is suggested to use dialogue or other methods of punishment instead of physical abuse.