Revue internationale de psychologie scolaire et cognitive
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An Investigation into the Nature of Emotional Child Abuse in Saudi Arabia: Systematic Literature Review

Aref Alsehaimi and Basheer Alshammari

Child emotional abuse is one of the most commonly occurring forms of childhood abuse worldwide, yet one of the least well understood, both in terms of its occurrence and its effects on the victims. It is difficult to study because it leaves no physical marks and is perpetrated, not through hitting, physical neglect, or sexual abuse, but through certain usages of language, and through threat, rejection, isolation, and other forms of emotional intimidation and deprivation. It may, however, accompany these other forms of abuse. The present research is focused specifically on emotional child abuse in Saudi Arabia, a country that is, by nature, extremely conservative, both socially and culturally. Until quite recently, Saudi Arabia had been the subject of few academic studies concerned with any form of child abuse. The aim of the present research is to conduct a systematic literature review on the subject of child emotional abuse in the Kingdom. A primary goal is to establish what is known about the incidence of such abuse and to explore gender and cohort differences to see if different age and socioeconomic groups are affected more than others. Secondary goals are to establish if there have been any changes in reported incidence of child emotional abuse in Saudi Arabia, to gauge the extent to which researchers and social workers are now ready to address this problem, and to identify what, if any, programs and policies have been put in place at a governmental level to meet the challenge of this form of abuse.