The high rate of physical child abuse in Malaysia is nothing new. Many people fail to recognize and report physical child abuse happened around them to the respected authority. There are many underreported cases of children that died or severely injured due to been physically abused. People feel that it is not important for a country development and even for them. Prejudice and misconception about reporting physical child abuse itself likely to be the cause. While the topic of physical child abuse has been substantially studied, there is no known research has explored the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in the context of reporting physical child abuse in Malaysia. In addressing the research gap, this study details a preliminary study which examined the influence of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control on public intention to report physical child abuse. The study aims to discuss about this issue by tests the theory’s predictive validity for reporting intentions. In this research, data were obtained via a questionnaire that be given to 268 respondents to representing public population in Shah Alam areas. To examine the hypothesized linkages within the Theory Planned Behaviour framework, the researcher conducted regression analysis using SPSS software. The results of the regression analysis indicated that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control significantly predicted public intention to report physical child abuse. The most influence factor for this study is subjective norm (0.387) followed by attitude (0.324) and perceived behaviour control (0.112). Given the research approach, generalizing the findings must be done with caution. Longitudinal studies may provide further support to the results. Future studies can also extend the Theory of Planned Behaviour framework by examining other variables such as attributes of the victim of physical child abuse itself, public and authorities. Reporting behaviour can also be included in the model to confirm if behavioral intention of reporting will evidently result in actual reporting. For practical implications, this study believed that the Theory of Planned Behaviour framework have a predictive power in the area of reporting unethical misconduct such as physical child abuse or any form of child abuse. Results obtained can serve as a basis for future works in this area. The study also offers implications for the development of public and government policies that can better promote awareness and preserve humanity among Malaysian. Furthermore, an enhanced knowledge about the factors also hope can influence public intention to report physical child abuse. This will help increase the reporting rate or faster action taken by Malaysians when see, hear or know any child abuse that happened around them.
