Brief Report: Attitudes About Responding to Survey Questions Concerning Childhood Sexual Abuse by Hispanic Female College Students

In no studies have research participants been asked how they feel about answering questions concerning childhood sexual abuse. We have performed searches from two different search engines again and have found nothing published which specifically addresses this question in the way we have. A questionnaire about childhood sexual abuse was administered to a sample of Mexican-American female college students. Over 32% reported positive histories of childhood sexual abuse before age 18. These subjects were more uncomfortable (37%) than those who did not experience childhood sexual abuse when answering questions about childhood sexual abuse (12%; p < 0.00001), but they were not more uncomfortable in answering questions about alcohol or drug use. Women who were sexually abused in childhood also readily disclosed childhood sexual abuse histories despite revealing discomfort about being asked questions concerning childhood sexual abuse. Our findings support concerns by researchers that childhood sexual abuse is neglected because researchers have an unwarranted perception about how fragile sexually abused subjects are as subjects.     

How child protective services investigators decide to substantiate mothers for failure-to-protect in sexual abuse cases

The purpose of this study was to determine how Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators decide to substantiate mothers for failure-to-protect from sexual abuse. A case-comparison study was used to compare 31 mothers who were and 62 mothers who were not substantiated for failure-to-protect by CPS. The multivariate analysis showed that mothers who did not consistently believe the sexual abuse occurred and who did not consistently act protectively were more likely to be substantiated. In addition, if they knew about the abuse from more than one source were less supportive of the children; and had a substance abuse problem, a mental health problem or were being battered, then they were more likely to be substantiated. Investigators appear to apply criteria consistently to substantiate mothers. doi:10.1300/J070v15n04_04.     

Child Sexual Abuse,Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,and Substance Use: Predictors of Revictimization in Adult Sexual Assault Survivors

This study examined the unique effects of child sexual abuse simultaneously with post-traumatic stress disorder symptom clusters, problem drinking, and illicit drug use in relation to sexual revictimization in a community sample of female adult sexual assault victims. Participants (N?=?555) completed two surveys a year apart. Child sexual abuse predicted more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adult sexual assault victims. Post-traumatic stress disorder numbing symptoms directly predicted revictimization, whereas other post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (reexperiencing, avoidance, and arousal) were related to problem drinking, which in turn predicted revictimization. Thus, numbing symptoms and problem drinking may be independent risk factors for sexual revictimization in adult sexual assault victims, particularly for women with a history of childhood sexual abuse.     

Judgments regarding parental alienation when parental hostility or child sexual abuse is alleged

Abstract

Allegations of Parental Alienation (PA), the systematic disparaging of one parent by the other parent aimed at alienating their child’s affections, as a basis for child custody decisions are highly controversial. Claims of parental hostility or allegations of child sexual abuse in custody cases may trigger concerns about PA. Family court professionals (N?=?280) rated young children’s accuracy of report (e.g., suggestibility, honesty) in general and also read three custody scenarios varying as to whether or not they included allegations of parental hostility or child sexual abuse, or no such allegations. For each scenario, the alleged alienating parent’s gender was experimentally varied between subjects. Participants rated the likelihood that each case involved PA. For the scenario that included allegations of child sexual abuse, professionals who viewed young children as more inaccurate reporters or who read about the mother (rather than a father) as the alleged alienator were more likely to rate the scenario as involving PA. For the scenario that described parental hostility but no child sexual abuse allegations, professionals who were older or female were more likely to judge the scenario as involving parental alienation when a mother (rather than a father) was the alleged alienator, whereas there were no significant predictors of responses to the no-allegation scenarios. Findings are discussed in relation to the difficult task of evaluating custody cases for PA when parental hostility or child sexual abuse is alleged.     

I Knew It All Along: The Sexual Grooming Behaviors of Child Molesters and the Hindsight Bias

Recent high profile cases of child sexual abuse have increased interest in the grooming behaviors of child molesters and why these offenders are not identified sooner. This study examined one possible explanation—the hindsight bias. Five hundred and twenty-six undergraduates were randomly assigned to read one of six vignettes and asked to rate the likelihood the person in the story is a child molester. Results supported the presence of the hindsight bias, with participants who were given outcome information overestimating the likelihood they would have predicted that the person was a child molester. Also, participants were able to recognize sexual grooming behaviors when the potential child molester was a relative and nonrelative. Findings indicated that sexual grooming behaviors may be more easily identified than previously proposed, but individuals greatly overestimate the likelihood they would have predicted a person was a child molester once they are given outcome information.     

Experiences of Mothers Who Are Child Sexual Abuse Survivors: A Qualitative Exploration

Child sexual abuse has been associated with a number of problems affecting women over their lifespan, including difficulties with parenting. However, there is a modest number of qualitative studies examining the impact of child sexual abuse on survivors who are mothers. There is a particular need for qualitative investigations that ask survivors who are mothers general questions about the impact of child sexual abuse on their lives rather than those that specifically ask about the impact of child sexual abuse on parenting. The former approach would allow survivors to describe effects that may impact parenting but that survivors do not consciously link to affecting their parenting. Such information may inform interventions to assist this population of survivors. This secondary data analysis examined themes revealed in interviews with 44 survivors of child sexual abuse who were mothers. Participants were seeking treatment for their child sexual abuse and completed an in-person interview in which they were asked open-ended questions about the sexual abuse they experienced as a child and how their abuse affects them now as adults. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded using thematic analysis. The following six themes emerged from the narratives: (a) being a parent, (b) family of origin dysfunction, (c) the impact of abuse, (d) the abuse history and response to abuse, (e) coping, and (f) hopes and desires for the future. This study highlights several ways in which child sexual abuse impacts survivors who are mothers, areas for further study, and the need for interventions to assist this population in meeting the challenges they face as mothers.     

Psychological impact of writing about abuse or positive experiences

Writing often helps people deal with trauma. To see if writing about childhood physical or sexual abuse, or positive experiences, helps, psychology undergraduates wrote for 20 minutes on 4 days about their abuse, a positive experience, or a trivial topic. Among 102 who began and 85 who completed pre-, post-, and 4-week follow-up measures of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideas, abuse writers were more likely to discontinue, and positive writers were more depressed and anxious. Compared to pretest, all completers were less depressed, anxious, and suicidal at follow-up, but nonsignificantly different in health visits. Completers who wrote about abuse rated the study as more valuable than did those who wrote about positive experiences. College students who wrote about childhood physical or sexual abuse benefited from any type of structured writing assignment (where they interacted with a researcher and got extra credit) in terms of reduced anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideas, but they found value in writing about their trauma more than writing about innocuous topics.     

Training Mental Health Professionals in Child Sexual Abuse: Curricular Guidelines

This study explored whether counseling practices with women survivors of child sexual abuse reflect the belief that women do not sexually abuse children. Canadian therapists (n?=?164) who work with women survivors of child sexual abuse were surveyed about their beliefs about what constitutes child sexual abuse, who commits child sexual abuse, and their practices regarding inquiries about abusive behavior. A majority self-reported that they ask women and think it is important to ask but most believe that clients will not spontaneously self-disclose inappropriate sexual thoughts or behaviors. How broadly or narrowly therapists defined child sexual abuse was not related to self-reported therapeutic discussion. Therapists demonstrated differential gender beliefs about child sexual abuse perpetration, but this did not relate to self-reported counseling practices. Implications for therapist education are discussed.     

Parent's Perceptions of Their Child's Knowledge of Sexual Abuse Prevention Concepts

This research investigates the relationship of parental knowledge of the seriousness of child sexual abuse and their children's understanding of sexual abuse prevention concepts. A total of 284 parents and their elementary school-aged children were surveyed immediately after and 5 months after the children participated in a school-based child abuse prevention program. In the first survey, the parents were asked whether they had provided prevention materials or had talked to their child about sexual abuse. At 5 months, 201 parents answered a short test of knowledge regarding child sexual abuse. At the same time, their children completed a 40 item Children's Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire (C.K.A.Q.) and the parents were asked to predict how their child would respond to 10 key items from this measure. Results indicated that parents in general were likely to overestimate the knowledge levels of the younger children. However, parents with higher knowledge levels more accurately predicted how their child would respond to the selcted C.K.A.Q. items.     

Assessing Sexual Abuse/Attack Histories with Bariatric Surgery Patients

This study assessed sexual abuse/attack histories in 537 bariatric surgery patients using the PsyBari. The prevalence rates found were lower (15.5%, 19.3% of women, 5.2% of men) than other studies that used bariatric surgery patients but consistent with studies that used nonbariatric obese subjects. Furthermore, bariatric surgery patients who disclosed sexual abuse/attack were more likely to disclose physical abuse, psychological problems, psychological treatment, psychiatric medication, and psychiatric hospitalization. Among bariatric surgery patients who disclosed sexual abuse/attack, females were more likely to disclose suicidal ideation. A logistic regression found that for females, physical abuse and suicidal ideation reliably predicted abuse/attack status. For males, psychological problems, psychiatric medications, hospitalization, and suicidal ideation, reliably predicted abuse/attack status.     

Health Professionals' Responses to Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse History: Female Child Sexual Abuse Survivors' Experiences

This study reports on a postal questionnaire, conducted in 2004, with female survivors of historic child sexual abuse. The questionnaire explored their experiences of health professionals' responsiveness to disclosure of child sexual abuse history. Of 61 participants, aged between 22 and 65, 69% had disclosed to health professionals. Those who had not disclosed reported that they would have liked to but were not asked about child sexual abuse. Thirty-five percent of participants suggested routine questioning about child sexual abuse. Most participants related a fear of common medical examination procedures to their experience of child sexual abuse, and 64% said this stopped them from attending regular health checks. The current study suggests the development of guidelines for dealing with possible child sexual abuse survivors would be useful for health professionals.     

Prevalence of Sexual Trauma History Using Behaviorally Specific Methods of Assessment in First Year College Students

There are several challenges associated with evaluating the prevalence of sexual trauma, including child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault. The aim of this study was to assess sexual trauma prevalence rates among first year college students (N = 954) using behaviorally specific questions and a more representative recruitment sample that did not rely on self-selection. Participants completed a list of sexual trauma questions, including general questions containing labels such as “rape” or “abuse” as well as behaviorally specific questions that describe specific behaviors that qualify as sexual trauma without labels. Results indicated that 6.7% of the sample reported at least one incident of child sexual abuse, with similar rates for men and women. Women were more likely to report a history of adult sexual assault, which was reported by 12.4% of the total sample. Participants were also more likely to endorse a history of sexual trauma when answering behaviorally specific rather than general “label” questions. Women survivors in particular were more likely than men to identify their experiences as abuse/assault (66.7% versus 21.1% for child sexual abuse), which may help explain prevalence differences between men and women in prior research. Men may be less likely than women to label their experiences as abuse and may be underidentified in sexual trauma research without the use of behaviorally specific questions. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the prevalence of sexual trauma is better assessed using behaviorally specific questions and that this is an important topic of study among both men and women.     

Transsexualism,Dissociation,and Child Abuse

Forty-five selfdefined female-to-male transsexuals were interviewed as part of a wide ranging sociological field study about female-to-male transsexuals. The data in this study are unusual in that they were obtained outside of any clinical settings. Questions were asked about childhood experiences of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Sixty percent reported one or more types of severe child abuse. In the course of discussing other issues, participants also reported having experienced many of the commonly cited initial and long-term effects of child abuse, including fear, anxiety and depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, excessive aggression, and suicide ideation and attempts. It was not possible to determine to what extent the sources of these complaints lay in child abuse, in gender dysphoria, in some combination of the two, or elsewhere. While no information was solicited about dissociative responses to child abuse, I have speculated, as have some of the participants themselves, that, in some cases, transsexualism may be an adaptive extreme dissociative swival response to severe child abuse.     

Links between past abuse,suicide ideation,and sexual orientation among San Diego college students

The authors explored relationships among childhood abuse, suicidal ideation, and sexual orientation of 18- to 30-year-old students enrolled in 2 San Diego area colleges, using responses from anonymous questionnaires. Sixty percent of the 138 eligible respondents were women, and 22% were self-identified gay/bisexual individuals. Women were more likely than men to report at least 1 form of emotional abuse (odds ratio [OR] = 2.3; p =.02) and unwanted sexual touching (OR = 4.3; p = .0004). Lesbian/bisexual women were significantly more likely to report past suicidal ideation than were heterosexual women (OR = 3.7, p = .03). Gay/bisexual men were more likely to report unwanted sexual touching than were heterosexual men (OR = 5.1, p = .04), but the men did not report significantly higher rates of past suicide ideation or suicide attempts. Sexual orientation and a past history of child sexual, physical, and emotional abuse could be compounding risk factors for suicidal ideation among college students.     

Boys Abused in a Community Setting: An Analysis of Gender,Relationship, and Delayed Prosecutions in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse

ABSTRACT

Previous research on gender differences and delay of disclosure of child sexual abuse is inconclusive; some research has found that male victims are more likely to delay disclosure than female victims, while other studies have found no gender difference. The present archival study investigated this inconsistency by examining factors that interact with delay. Judicial outcomes of child sexual abuse cases were coded (N = 4237) for variables related to the offense, the complainant-accused relationship, and court proceedings. Males and females differed with respect to delay only when the relationship between the complainant and the accused was established in the community (e.g., sports coach) or was a stranger to the child. When the accused was a parent, other relative, or a non-relative connected to the child through the family, there was no difference in delay between males and females. Further, males were more vulnerable in the community, as evidenced by a higher proportion of accused community members with male than female complainants, even though males represented fewer than 25% of cases in the database. These findings may help explain inconsistencies in gender differences in delayed disclosure. Implications regarding education about child sexual abuse are discussed, with a focus on male victims.     

Family Characteristics and Structure as Determinants of Sexual Abuse Among Female Secondary School Students in Nigeria: A Brief Report

ABSTRACT

Child sexual abuse is associated with factors that enhance the vulnerability of the child, raising physical and mental health complications in adulthood. Three hundred and fifty students participated in this cross-sectional study. Important determinants of sexual abuse were parents not living together, not living with parents, family type, and current parents’ marital status (p < 0.05). Respondents living with both parents were two times less likely to experience sexual abuse (OR = 0.5, CI: 0.3, 0.9) than respondents living with their guardians. Respondents whose parents were living together were about two times less likely to experience sexual abuse (OR = 0.6, CI: 0.3–0.9) than respondents whose parents were not living together. Respondents whose parents were either divorced or separated were about six times more likely to experience sexual abuse (OR = 5.6, CI: 1.1–27.2) than respondents with widowed parents. The study showed that parental togetherness protected against child vulnerability and risk of being sexually abused.     

Using Child Advocacy Center Tracking Data to Examine Criminal Disposition Times

Given the difficulty of obtaining criminal justice data on child abuse cases, information from child advocacy centers could be an important resource for answering questions about criminal justice outcomes for child abuse cases. In this exploratory study, we use data from one child advocacy center (N = 632) to examine the feasibility of using NCAtrak, a national computerized, Web-based case tracking system, to examine criminal disposition timeframes in child abuse cases. The system data indicated that the time frame for the cases to be criminally resolved varied widely. About one in four child physical and sexual abuse cases with adult offenders took more than one year to reach a final disposition. About 11% of child sexual abuse cases with juvenile offenders took more than one year to reach a criminal disposition. We encourage child advocacy centers using computer-based data systems to think of additional ways they might use this potentially rich source of data.     

Study of Cases of Child Sexual Abuse Referred for Medico-Legal Examination in Cairo and Giza,Egypt,2007–2011

ABSTRACT

Child sexual abuse is a complex problem that results in detrimental effects on its victims. This study aimed to investigate the pattern of child sexual abuse in cases referred for medico-legal examination in Cairo and Giza governorates in the period between 2007–2011. The study included 813 cases of child sexual abuse. Female gender was more predominant than male gender (52.8%, 4.29 cases), and adolescents were the most frequent age group identified as victims of sexual abuse (43.8%, 356 cases). All perpetrators were male and most of them were persons outside the victims’ families (89.9%, 731 cases). It was recommended to teach and encourage children to tell their caregivers if they have been assaulted and to educate parents and caregivers on how to respond when the child discloses sexual abuse.     

Relationships of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse to emotional and behavioral problems among incarcerated adolescents

This study examined the relationships of sexual, physical and emotional abuse to emotional (internalizing) and behavioral (externalizing) problems among incarcerated girls and boys. Participants were youth who were remanded to the correctional facilities within a statewide juvenile correctional system in a southern state in the United States of America. Each participant completed a structured interview regarding abuse history, emotional and behavioral difficulties, and demographic characteristics. Multiple regression analyses indicated that girls were more likely than boys to internalize their problems. The only abuse variable that was positively and significantly associated with emotional problems was emotional abuse. Greater behavioral problems were significantly related to youths being younger in age, white ethnicity, history of sexual abuse, and history of physical abuse. There were overall gender differences for internalizing problems, but not for externalizing problems among incarcerated adolescents. Furthermore, physical and sexual abuses were related to externalizing problems but not to internalizing problems. Thus, different types of abuse appear to have different effects on adolescent behavior. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.