Children's disclosures of sexual abuse: learning from direct inquiry

Objectives

Published protocols for forensic interviewing for child sexual abuse do not include specific questions about what prompted children to tell about sexual abuse or what made them wait to tell. We, therefore, aimed to: (1) add direct inquiry about the process of a child's disclosure to a forensic interview protocol; (2) determine if children will, in fact, discuss the process that led them to tell about sexual abuse; and (3) describe the factors that children identify as either having led them to tell about sexual abuse or caused them to delay a disclosure.

Methods

Forensic interviewers were asked to incorporate questions about telling into an existing forensic interview protocol. Over a 1-year period, 191 consecutive forensic interviews of child sexual abuse victims aged 3-18 years old in which children spoke about the reasons they told about abuse or waited to tell about abuse were reviewed. Interview content related to the children's reasons for telling or for waiting to tell about abuse was extracted and analyzed using a qualitative methodology in order to capture themes directly from the children's words.

Results

Forensic interviewers asked children about how they came to tell about sexual abuse and if children waited to tell about abuse, and the children gave specific answers to these questions. The reasons children identified for why they chose to tell were classified into three domains: (1) disclosure as a result of internal stimuli (e.g., the child had nightmares), (2) disclosure facilitated by outside influences (e.g., the child was questioned), and (3) disclosure due to direct evidence of abuse (e.g., the child's abuse was witnessed). The barriers to disclosure identified by the children were categorized into five groups: (1) threats made by the perpetrator (e.g., the child was told (s)he would get in trouble if (s)he told), (2) fears (e.g., the child was afraid something bad would happen if (s)he told), (3) lack of opportunity (e.g., the child felt the opportunity to disclose never presented), (4) lack of understanding (e.g., the child failed to recognize abusive behavior as unacceptable), and (5) relationship with the perpetrator (e.g., the child thought the perpetrator was a friend).

Conclusions

Specific reasons that individual children identify for why they told and why they waited to tell about sexual abuse can be obtained by direct inquiry during forensic interviews for suspected child sexual abuse.

Practice implications

When asked, children identified the first person they told and offered varied and specific reasons for why they told and why they waited to tell about sexual abuse. Understanding why children disclose their abuse and why they wait to disclose will assist both professionals and families. Investigators and those who care for sexually abused children will gain insight into the specific barrier that the sexually abused child overcame to disclose. Prosecutors will be able to use this information to explain to juries why the child may have delayed his or her disclosure. Parents who struggle to understand why their child disclosed to someone else or waited to disclose will have a better understanding of their child's decisions.     

Bridging research and practice: challenges and successes in implementing evidence-based preventive intervention strategies for child maltreatment

Child maltreatment has been associated with a wide range of negative developmental outcomes for children and families as well as significant economic consequences. While efficacious intervention strategies have been demonstrated to reduce symptoms of trauma and to improve behavioral and emotional functioning, these models have not been widely adopted by clinicians. The challenges associated with exporting evidence-based interventions into community settings are discussed, along with an example of a preventive intervention program for young mothers, successfully implemented through a partnership of community agencies and funders.     

Changes in the prevalence of child sexual abuse, its risk factors, and their associations as a function of age cohort in a Finnish population sample

Objective

We examined (1) the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) experiences as a function of cohort and gender, (2) the prevalence of factors associated with CSA as a function of cohort and whether the association of these factors with CSA remained the same irrespective of cohort, and (3) whether any cohort differences could be explainable by cohort differences in reporting bias.

Method

We used the responses of 4,561 men (M = 29, SD = 7 years) and 8,361 female (M = 29, SD = 7 years) Finnish participants who responded to the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form as well as questions regarding family structure.

Results

The prevalence of CSA experiences varied between 0.7-4.6% for men and 1.8-7.5% for women depending on the item. Younger cohorts reported less CSA as well as less of the risk factors (physical neglect and abuse, emotional neglect and abuse, parental substances abuse, not growing up with both biological parents) that were positively associated with the likelihood of CSA. The effects of these risk factors did not vary as a function of the cohort. Also, the declining trend was not explainable by social desirability being higher in the younger cohorts.

Conclusions

The results suggest that there is a real decline in the prevalence of CSA and it is associated with a simultaneous decline in factors associated with CSA.     

Identifying and predicting problem behavior trajectories among pre-school children investigated for child abuse and neglect

Objective

Young children involved with child welfare services are at high risk for behavior problems. This study aims to identify externalizing behavior paths that preschoolers in this high-risk population follow over a 6 year period, and the predictors of membership in normative and problematic pathways.

Methods

Using data from the National Study of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW), the sample included 246 4-year-olds who remained home after investigation. Latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was used to estimate the number, size, and shape of subgroups of preschoolers following distinct behavioral pathways. Early predictors of membership in the resulting groups were then examined.

Results

Four groups of preschool children following distinct behavior trajectories over 6 years were identified. Weighted results show that more than half (61%) of the children followed a low/normal problem behavior trajectory while just over one tenth (12%) were on a persistent high trajectory, remaining in the clinical range throughout the study. Improving (23%) and worsening (4%) problem behavior groups were also identified. Internalizing problems, attention problems, child ethnicity, and maltreatment type reported at age 4 predicted membership in the trajectory groups.

Conclusions

Internalizing behavior problems and maltreatment type may distinguish preschool children who are more likely to experience worsening or persistent problematic externalizing behaviors from those likely to follow a normal behavior trajectory.

Practice implications

Identifying early indicators of externalizing behavior problems and addressing them with evidence-based interventions to reduce negative behaviors may avert long-term negative outcomes.     

Implicit attitudes toward children may be unrelated to child abuse risk

Objective

To explore whether adults possess implicit attitudes toward children and whether those attitudes are especially negative among respondents who are high in child physical abuse (CPA) risk.

Methods

The present study used an implicit evaluative priming procedure. In this procedure, participants were instructed to make decisions about the evaluative implications of target words. These words were preceded by photographs of child faces or adult faces displaying positive, neutral, or negative expressions. Reaction times for the evaluative decisions were used as an index of the extent to which photos invoked negative or positive evaluative reactions.

Results

Results from 2 studies, the first conducted on a student sample (N = 90) and the second on a parent sample (N = 95), demonstrated that evaluative congruence between the facial expressions displayed in photographs and the target words facilitated responses. Furthermore, the results suggested that regardless of CPA risk, child faces, relative to adult faces, facilitated responses to negative target words, suggesting an out-group bias. This implicit out-group bias was not moderated by respondents’ CPA risk status.

Conclusions

Faces of children, relative to faces of adults, appear to activate negative information structures that facilitate evaluative decisions of negative stimuli, suggesting an out-group bias. Given that out-group biases typically lead to less favorable treatment of out-group members, additional research is needed to examine the pervasiveness of negative evaluative biases towards children and the potential implications of such biases on children's lives. Further, research examining whether high CPA risk parents and low CPA risk parents differ in how they manage initial negative evaluative reactions is needed.     

短期封闭式综合干预对肥胖男少年体成分、瘦素及睾酮的影响

目的:探寻短期(15天)封闭综合干预对肥胖男少年体成分、瘦素及性激素的影响,为防治少年肥胖,改善性发育不良提供科学的实验依据.方法:10名体脂含量正常男少年为对照组,10名肥胖男少年为实验组(给予短期综合干预),干预前测定对照组与实验组相关指标进行组间比较,干预后测定实验组相关指标进行组内比较.结果:干预前实验组体成分、血糖、胰岛素、瘦素均显著高于对照组(P＜0.01;P＜0.01;P＜0.01;P＜0.05),睾酮显著低于对照组(P＜0.05);干预后实验组体重、体脂含量、体脂率、瘦体重、血糖、胰岛素、瘦素、睾酮均显著下降(P＜0.01;P＜0.01;P＜0.01;P＜0.01;P＜0.01、P＜0.01、P＜0.01、P＜0.05);胰岛素与体重、体脂含量、体脂率、瘦体重呈正相关(P＜0.05;P ＜0.01;P＜0.01;P＜0.05),瘦素与体脂含量、体脂率、胰岛素呈正相关(P＜0.05;P＜0.01;P＜0.05).结论:短期(15天)的综合干预能有效地减少肥胖男少年的体脂含量,改善胰岛素抵抗和瘦素抵抗,但对改善肥胖男少年性发育不良暂时无明显影响,长期的影响还有待进一步的研究.     

大型赛事知识产权与反垄断之间几个争议性问题的探究——以奥林匹克知识产权为例

奥运会在世界范围内的巨大影响力使得奥林匹克知识产权的价值日益飙升,对其市场开发所得的收益也已经成为现代奥运会重要的经济来源。与此同时,对奥运知识产权＂滥用＂,触及反垄断法限制的担忧也如影相随。奥运知识产权的市场开发究竟是否涉及市场垄断？本文以北京奥运会为例,仅从知识产权法和反垄断法的层面对与奥运知识产权市场开发相关的几个热点争议话题进行了探究。     

欧洲性教育标准述评

随着欧洲各国对性教育重要性认识的提高,加之欧洲各国性教育发展水平不一致,性教育标准多样,无统一的标准,不利于各国相互借鉴以改善性教育。鉴于此,世界卫生组织欧洲区域办事处和联邦健康教育中心于2010年联合制定了欧洲性教育标准。该标准从信息、技能、态度三个方面对6个年龄段的性教育制定具体的内容。该标准首次引入全面性教育(holistic sexuality education),重新定义了性教育年龄段,丰富了性教育的内容,并强调各个年龄段前后衔接。欧洲性教育标准值得借鉴,中国今后在性教育方面应摒弃传统性教育观念、倡导"全面性教育",注重学校性教育内容的广泛性与实用性,以一种积极、整体的方式讲授关于性健康和预防性侵犯的知识,并注重培养高尚的性道德,树立正确的性价值观。     

Feminine Consciousness—From the perspective of Gender Markedness

Some researches have been conducted concerning the Markedness Theory about the marked and the unmarked, from aspects of Phonetics, Grammar, Pragmatic, Psycholinguistic and Sociolinguistic. Few researches have combined the Markedness Theory with literature theories and even no research has been done to study the Feminism Theory from the perspective of the Markedness Theory. This paper discusses markedness theory with regard to two basic issues: Why it is ok to say"历史"in Chinese, but the equivalent in English is"history", not"*herstory". Why the meaning of"governor"and"governess"is distinctively different? No research concerning the issues from the perspective of markedness has been conducted yet. This paper gives a brief review of the studies concerning the Markedness Theory, on the basis of which the question is aroused.     

Motivational factors in discussing sexual health with young people with chronic conditions or disabilities

The objective of this study was to identify determinants of professionals’ intention to use the new board game SeCZ TaLK to facilitate sexual health discussions with young people with chronic health conditions and disabilities, and to gauge whether intention led to actual use. A cross-sectional web-based survey of 336 professionals before they received the game sought to measure their intention to use SeCZ TaLK, their attitudes towards discussing sexuality, social professional environment, self-efficacy, opinion on the feasibility of using the game and experience discussing sexuality. Actual use of SeCZ TaLK was assessed at follow-up (N = 105). Professionals with higher self-efficacy and more experience in discussing sexual health were more likely to intend to use the game. At follow-up, intention to use explained 21% of the variance in actual use. SeCZ TaLK fits easily into the daily practice of professionals working in assisted-living and day-care facilities; other professionals experienced greater difficulty integrating the game into their practice. Despite this, SeCZ TaLk was also used across a wide range of settings including in psycho-educational groups, group consultations in hospitals and group therapy in rehabilitation centres. Professionals appreciated the board game SeCZ TaLK, but actual use depended on their own motivation and skills and compatibility with work routines.