Child Sexual Abuse Flashcards
How prevalent is child sexual abuse in australia?
sexual abuse reported by by 28.5% of callers
Australian prevalence study –> maltreated compared to non-maltreated Australians
maltreated participants had 3x the odds of any mental disorder, GAD, severe alcohol use disorder, as well as 5x the odds of PTSD
significantly higher rate of suicide or accidental fatal overdose among CSA victims than in general population
ROSH
Risk of Significant Harm –> increased in NSW by 6.1% –> particularly relevant to the pandemic
Australian CSA trends
CSA has been increasing - could be increased awareness and adherence to mandatory reporting
also the definition of csa has also now included online csa
Amsterdam Sexual Abuse Case
125 children were victims of sexual abuse
- looked at the profiles of these children to see what symptoms might occur before they come forward about abuse:
- these included problems concerning:
- emotions, behaviour, toilet training, development
- but about half of the confirmed severe victims of CSA did not display any psychosocial problems
How do worse effects come about?
- penetration is involved
- violence
- closer relationship to the perp
- multiple offenders
- longer duration
- more frequent contact
what was the strongest predictor of maladjustment among CSA victims
- use of self-destructive coping strategies, followed by avoidant strategies
- 3 types of coping: constructive (negatively predicts symptoms), self-destructive (positively predicts) and avoidant coping (positively predicts)
- coping strategies mediate the severity of CSA and the symptoms
what are the risk factors for CSA victimization
- prior CSA victimization of the child and/or siblings
- prior victimization of the child other than abuse
- prior or concurrent forms of child- abuse in the child’s home environment
- parental history of child abuse victimization
- intimate partner violence between child’s parents
- parental substance abuse
- overprotective parents may lead children to develop a victim schema – become too dependent on adults
impacts on sexual self-efficacy
the belief in one’s ability to engage in desired and to refuse unwanted sexual activities and behaviours
csa results in silencing the self attitudes (lower limit setting self-efficacy) and a divided self
Child sexual abuse victims as witnesses
- heard in the criminal court
- often they are the only witness
- concern over the reliability and truthfulness of children’s evidence
Use of props
anatomical correct doll
when you asked children open questions, the older the child, the more correct information was observed
younger children were able to give more correct than incorrect information
younger children made more errors the more direct questions were asked
- helps because children weren’t able to name what had happened to them
- much more likely to reveal explicitly that their genitals had been contacted or penetrated
some solutions for child witnesses
- narrative elaboration
- props and drawings
- physical context reinstatemnt
- cognitive context reinstatement (close your eyes, get a picture in your head)
interview protocols
step wise: funnel (open then direct questions)
cognitive interview: places an exmphasis on retrieval aids
- narrative free recall (i.e. report all the events)
- use encouragers, elaborative promps, directive prompts and summary statements
- reported much more detail in sociocognitive interview than standard interview - and this was not at the expense of incorrect information
nichd interview:
- invitation prompts elicited more detailed information than directive prompts
- children provided more informaiton when they received practice describing events in response to invitation prompts
- more errors for peripheral rather than central events
- reported more positive mood state post interview
disclosure
- 60-70% of children who experienced sexual abuse delayed disclosure into adulthood
- children disclosed in situations where the theme of child sexual abuse was addressed or activated
- most children had disclosed to someone, usually a friend
- boys were less willing to disclose than girls
inhibitors to disclosure:
- limited support
- perceived negative consequences
- feelings of self blame, shame, guilt
Piaget and Truth Telling
Piaget underestimated children’s competence - he suggested that children below 7yrs were incompetent witnesses
but when these children are asked in a developmentally apprpriate way, they can distinguish between lie and truth telling
reassurances about telling the truth are likely to increase truth telling
