Professionals' attributions of censure in father-daughter incest

Despite the recent increase in interest in the area of child sexual abuse, few studies have explored the attitudes of professionals involved in working with children. The present study investigates variables relating to the attribution of censure by two professional groups (teachers and social workers), to a victim of father-daughter incest, the father, and nonparticipating mother. Subjects were given one of four brief histories of a 14-year-old girl who had been sexually abused by her father. Cases varied according to whether the child had/had not resisted her father's advances and whether she had/had not had other sexual experiences. Subjects then completed a questionnaire and indicated the extent to which they attributed censure to the child, her mother, and father, and the extent to which they believed she would be affected by her experiences. Results showed that responses were influenced by the level of resistance, other sexual experiences, and respondents' sex and occupation.