During the pandemic, official reports of child harm went down—but that did not necessarily mean children were safer. A survey of Egyptian parents found a much darker picture inside the home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, families across the world experienced new stressors that threatened their health and economic well-being.

That stress may jeopardize the relationship between parents and children. This study set out to investigate physical harm by parents in Egypt during the pandemic, relate it to parents’ stress, and identify other possible risk factors.

Amid the COVID-19 crises, increasing reports of physical harm to children emerged during quarantine and lockdowns. But official reports decreased, partly because families had less contact with teachers, doctors, child-protection services, and other professionals who usually report such incidents.

Despite the likely undercount, public-health organizations emphasized the increased risk, especially in families that had been abusive before the pandemic. Very few studies had addressed physical harm to children and parents’ stress in low- and middle-income countries.

The study aimed to estimate how common this harm was in an Egyptian group during the pandemic and to examine its association with parents’ stress, anxiety, and depression. It was intended to build knowledge for monitoring and evaluating child harm and family violence in low- and middle-income countries.

The most common forms were hitting a child’s hand, back, arm, or leg with a hand, followed by pinching, shaking, pushing, or shoving a child, and then hitting a child elsewhere with an object. Some parents refused to report how often one or more forms had occurred, so the reported figures are not a complete count.

For less severe harm, the child’s age, how parents defined that kind of harm, and their anxiety score remained significant predictors of how often it occurred. For more severe harm, the child’s age, the number of children, ratings of online schooling, and parents’ anxiety remained significant.

The study found that parent-reported physical harm was common: sixty-two point nine percent reported less severe harm, and thirty-two point nine percent reported more severe harm toward their children. It is hard to determine whether the pandemic caused this because there was no information from before the pandemic for comparison.

Only parents’ anxiety was linked to both less severe and more severe harm after the other factors were considered; depression and general stress were not significant. Younger children were linked to both forms of harm, while having more children was linked only to more severe harm.

These rates are probably minimum estimates of the actual figures. Some parents may have avoided reporting harmful behavior because of shame. The study cannot establish cause and effect, and its participants may not represent all families.

It also examined physical harm only, not emotional abuse, neglect, or sexual abuse. The study found that reported physical harm was common, and anxiety was linked to both less severe and more severe forms. Families need support that makes non-violent discipline possible.