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.

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