Prevalence of Exposure to Parental Intimate Partner Violence and its Association with Self-esteem of Adolescents amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Intimate partner violence (IPV) increased exponentially during the COVID-19 epidemic. But knowledge of the children’s exposure to parental IPV is lacking. Therefore, this study aims to determine the prevalence of children’s exposure to parental IPV and its association with self-esteem. 482 adolescents aged 11 to 17 were included in this study from Kerala, India. The samples were chosen using convenient and random sampling methods. The child Exposure to Domestic Violence scale and Cooper smith Self-Esteem scale were used to collect the data. The correlation and gender differences were analysed using Pearson product-moment correlation and an independent sample t-test. Results show that 42.5 % of adolescents were exposed to parental IPV and that exposure to parental IPV is negatively correlated with participants’ self-esteem. Sex and age differences were not statistically significantly related to exposure to parental IPV and self-esteem. The findings highlight a need for online interventions and policies to protect adolescents exposed to parental IPV and boost their self-esteem during this pandemic