Background: A central dimension of the State’s responsibility in a liberal democracy is the protection of individuals’ central rights and freedoms, especially that of children who cannot protect themselves from genuine harm. However, it is documented that children are maltreated, abused, and neglected within their communities yearly by those who are supposed to protect them. Thus, knowledge and perpetration of Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) among parents and guardians in a community setting of Zikpak, Kafanchan, Nigeria, was assessed.

Methods: The descriptive survey was used for the study. Multi-stage sampling was adopted in selecting 128 married parents and guardians out of 189. A semi-structured, three-sector questionnaire was used to collect data from parents and guardians. For knowledge and perpetration of CAN, items were scored in the following categories: A score <50% was categorized as inadequate/ nonexistent, while a score ≥50% was considered adequate/ existent. 

Results: Most of the parents were biological parents (92.8%), employed (59.4%), and have a child monitor time of less than 8hrs/day (74.8%). Respondents demonstrated adequate knowledge (Mean score of 63%) of CAN, which translated to overall non-perpetration (mean score of 29.9%). However, in the physical abuse sub-domain, respondents reported hitting a child with hard objects as a means of punishment (85.6%). Emotional/psychological abuse (64.9%) and emotional neglect (54.7%) were recorded among the respondents as they reported saying hurtful things to their children whenever they offend them, calling them hurtful names as means of scolding just as they would equally drive them away when watching favorite TV channel and insult them publicly.

Conclusion: Respondents were adequately knowledgeable about CAN, which translated to overall non-perpetration of the same on their children. However, elements of physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect were recorded in the study setting. Thus, a detailed understanding of these findings is important to informing policymakers, stakeholders, program planners, and community health nursing service providers in developing appropriate policies and strategies to mitigate pockets of CAN being recorded in the community. Such actions are necessary to safeguard child growth and development.