Journal of Counseling Research

Aim: Child abuse is one of the problems facing humanity. Families must be trained to distinguish the differences between parenting attitudes with harmful attitudes about children. This study aimed to investigate the comparison and recognition of parents with and without a college education about a variety of child abuse. Methods: This was a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews and the research population included 28 people (parents) with and without college education which were selected through purposive sampling. Results: parental knowledge about the type of child abuse (physical, emotional, sexual, and neglect) were examined in two different tables and in two groups with and without a college education and also knowledge and awareness of the risk factors and the consequences of child abuse provided in separate tables by considering college education and concepts and the main expressions is classified using open axial and selective coding. Findings: Based on conducted interviews, the recognition of physical abuse in both groups with and without a college education is equally high, but with the exception that the parental knowledge about the scope of types of child abuse is more in the group with college education  than the other group. In this study, parents without a college education in their parenting methods relied considerably  on physical abuse. Also knowledge of emotional abuse is high in parents with a college education, but there is awareness of emotional neglect among parents with a university education due to their education and employment. There is knowledge about sexual harassment in both groups with the exception that the information and awareness of sexual harassment among parents with a college education is much higher. Another significant point in this research was emotional neglect, due to preoccupation of parents with the virtual world in today's age. Conclusions: It may be concluded that the factor of education can be effective in recognition of types of child abuse. One interesting point was that most college-educated parents used third-person in their sentences, such that it appeared these parents did not use abusive behaviors in their parenting, but are aware of what constitutes abusive behavior for other parents, or they intelligently resisted self-disclosing. On the other hand, majority of parents without college education seemed to use sentences that pointed to their own behaviors and reactions in relation to their children, showing less resistance, talking more about their objective and personal experiences.