Maternal perceptions of and responses to child sexual abuse

Zlatka Rakovec-Felser (Author), Lea Vidovič (Author)

Abstract

Background: Several researches indicate that most child victims delay disclosing of sexual abuse for significant periods of time. There are numerous reasons as to why children are avoiding the disclosure of the abuse. The aim of this study was to determine how a mother’s response to a child’s allegations impacts the child’s willingness to disclose sexual abuse. Methods: We conducted a retrospective quantitative and qualitative analysis of 73 court-referred cases of child sexual abuse which have been disclosed in Slovenia in the last ten years. All the child victims included in the study were female and the perpetrators adult male persons. The expert opinions were made by the same expert. Results: We realized that, at the occurrence of abuse, the child victims were from 4 to 15 years old and their mean age was at 11. 5 years. About two-thirds of children were victims of the intra-familial type (61.6%) and a little more than one third of extra-familial type of sexual abuse (38.4%). The group of victims with the support of their mothers needed about 9 months to disclose the secret, while the delay of the disclosure in the cases without the support of mothers was much longer (M=6.9 years). Conclusion: For female child victims of sexual abuse the perceived protective attitude of their mothers is very important. Especially when the sexual abuse happened in the family, the mother’s support can attribute to stop the ongoing abuse, eliminate its immediate effects and decrease its likely negative long-term outcome.

Keywords

child sexual abuse;disclosure;maternal response;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2016
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UM MF - Faculty of Medicine
UDC:	614:364.633
COBISS:	3581925
ISSN:	0351-0026
Parent publication:	Zdravstveno varstvo
Views:	969
Downloads:	362
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Materin pogled in odziv na spolno zlorabo otroka
Secondary abstract:	Izhodišča: Raziskave kažejo, da otroci, ki so žrtve spolne zlorabe, dolgo časa ne spregovorijo o svojih doživetjih. Za to obstajajo številni razlogi. Naš namen je bil ugotoviti, kako se razkritje kaže na Slovenskem, predvsem pa, kako na razkritje vpliva materin odziv na otrokove obtožbe. Metode: Retrospektivno smo izvedli kvantitativno in kvalitativno analizo 73 sodnih mnenj o sumih storjenih spolnih zlorab, opravljenih v zadnjih 10 letih. V raziskavo smo vključili žrtve ženskega spola, storilec pa je bil v vseh primerih odrasel moški. Izvedenec, ki je o sodnih primerih podal mnenje, je bil v vseh primerih ista oseba. Rezultati: Pokazalo se je, da so žrtve spolne zlorabe stare od 4 do 15 let, v povprečju pa 11,5 leta. Okrog dve tretjini teh deklic sta zlorabo doživeli v družini (61,6%), nekaj več kot tretjina pa zunaj družine (38,4%). Žrtve, ki so bile deležne materine opore in pomoči, so potrebovale okrog 9 mesecev, da so razkrile zlorabo, tiste, ki podpore matere niso bile deležne, pa so imele večje težave in so o zlorabi spregovorile šele po nekaj letih (M=6,9 leta). Zaključek: Za deklico, ki je žrtev spolne zlorabe, je izrednega pomena, da v materi prepozna zaupanja vredno osebo. Posebno, če se zloraba pojavi v družini, lahko materina podpora pripomore k prekinitvi zlorabe, omili njene travmatske učinke in zmanjša njene dolgotrajne negativne posledice.
Secondary keywords:	spolna zloraba otrok;razkritje;odziv matere;
URN:	URN:NBN:SI
Type (COBISS):	Scientific work
Pages:	str. 114-120
Volume:	ǂLetn. ǂ55
Issue:	ǂšt. ǂ2
Chronology:	2016
DOI:	10.1515/sjph-2016-0017
ID:	9599966