The mediating role of nurses' attitude towards reporting child abuse and neglect

Purpose: Attitudes towards reporting child abuse and neglect play a significant role in determining the tendency to report abuse and neglect. In addition, Cognitive Response Theory (Shen, 2020) suggests that individuals actively process messages by producing pro and/or counter arguments referred to as “Gain – loss thoughts”. However, literature positioning the variable, attitudes towards reporting, as a mediator, as well as its importance, are limited. The purpose of the study was to investigate the mediating effect of pediatric nurses' attitudes between “gain-loss thoughts” and the tendency to report child abuse and neglect. Design and methods: A cross-sectional study examined 124 pediatric nurses working in central Israel's hospital departments concerning nurses' tendency to report (tendency to report = TTR), attitudes towards reporting, and “gain-loss thoughts” (positive and negative consequences for the child). Results: Most of the nurses had professional experience of 11 years or more (n = 75; 62.5%). According to the findings, nurses' attitudes towards reporting mediate the effect of gain-loss on the TTR child abuse and neglect. Conclusions: Findings from this study contributed to our understanding of the importance of pediatric nurses' attitudes in determining the TTR abuse and neglect. Only nurses' positive attitudes towards reporting child abuse had a mediating effect on TTR. Practice implications: Understanding the importance of attitudes and gain-loss thoughts can serve as a strategy for training programs and in the assimilation of reporting obligations by health professionals in general and nurses in particular.