Child Sexual Abuse

Question 1

• Characteristics of sexual abuse experiences

Answer 1

o Compared with girls, boys are older at onset of victimisation, more likely to be abused by nonfamily members, and more likely to be abused by women and by offenders who are known to have abused other children
o Families of both incest and non-incest sexual abuse victims are reported as less cohesive, more disorganised, and generally more dysfunctional than families of non-abused individuals
o Problems with communication, a lack of emotional closeness and flexibility, and social isolation
o The incidence of sexual abuse among children with disability is 1.75 times the rate of children w/o disability
o Unlike other forms of abuse SES is not a factor

Question 2

• Disclosure

Answer 2

o Fewer than half of the victims tell anyone at the time of the abuse, and a large percentage never reveal the abuse until asked for research purposes (Goodman, 2006)
o Gomes-Schwartz et al. (1990) found that only 24% reported within a week of the last episode and Elliot and Briere (1994) found that 75% of children did not disclose within the year of the first incident, and 18% waited more than 5 years.
o A qualitative analysis of children’s perspectives on the context for disclosure found that children disclosed in situations where the theme of child sexual abuse was addressed or activated; children revealed that they were sensitive to others reactions and whether their disclosures would be misinterpreted (Jensen, Gulbrandsen, Mossige, Reichelt, & Tjersland, 2005).

Question 3

• Effects of sexual abuse on children

Answer 3

o When sexually abused children are compared with their non-abused clinical cohorts, they tend to have different kinds of problems: depression, suicidal behaviour, low SE, anxiety: when sexually abused girls from dysfunctional families are compared with non-abused girls from similarly disturbed families, the abused girls have lower SE, more internalised aggression, and poorer relationships with their mother.

Question 4

• CSA effects on adults

Answer 4

o Males are more likely to cope by externalising their distress and females by internalising it
o Of the interpersonal outcomes, the most common complaints are in the sexual domain
 More likely to be in abusive sexual romantic relationships and experience re-victimisation
o 40% of children across a number of studies did not develop abuse related problems (Kendall-Tackett et al., 1993)
o Maternal belief in the child’s disclosure and support following disclosure have a significant impact on later functioning

Question 5

• Three Generations of CSA Research

Answer 5

o First generation
 A catalogue of the short-term and long-term effects of CSA
o Second generation
 Identifies variables that moderate the relationship between CSA and negative outcomes
o Third generation
 Mediating processes through which CSA produces long-term outcomes.

Question 6

• Problem of establishing effects of CSA

Answer 6

o Coexists with other difficult life circumstances e.g. negative home environment or other forms of abuse which may account for the poor long-term adjustment
o Often associated with low levels of parental support and high levels of parental conflict

Question 7

• Rind (1998)

Answer 7

o Although both CSA and poor family environment were associated with psychological dysfunction, the family environment effect was substantially stronger and controlling for family environment effects reduced the percentage of significant CSA-symptom relationships obtained across samples from 41% to 17% - highlights the importance of considering family dysfunction when assessing the effects of CSA

Question 8

• Merrill et al (2001)

Answer 8

o assessed whether CSA and family support were related; the independent effects of CSA and parental support on a range of psychological symptoms; and how parental support and CSA interact to predict long-term adjustment
o CSA victims reported less parental support than non-CSA victims
o No interaction between CSA and parental support. Instead, those with high support reported fewer trauma symptoms and those with CSA history reported more trauma symptoms

Question 9

• Describing CSA victims - Conclusions

Answer 9

o CSA was a significant predictor of long-term psychological difficulties – across 10 symptoms
o Controlling for parental support did not eliminate the effect of CSA on symptoms (counter to some suggestions that family dysfunction explains most of the variance in poor CSA outcomes)
o Parental support had neither a direct or indirect effect on symptoms – although support was positively related to constructive coping and constructive coping was negatively related to symptoms, both relationships were weak yielding a non-significant indirect path
o Further, that the direct effect of abuse severity on symptoms was not significant suggests that the relationship between severity of CSA and adult impairment was largely mediated by the coping strategies used to deal with the abuse

Question 10

• CSA effects of future parenting - SEM model

Answer 10

o Investigated the extent to which the relationship are mediated by the psychological well-being of the mother, the parenting relationship and teenage pregnancy
o Results
 CSA directly predicted low maternal confidence
 Anxiety, teenage pregnancy, maternal confidence directly related to child behaviour problems
 Anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem directly contributed to maternal confidence
 Teenage pregnancy contributed to anxiety, low self-esteem, and maternal confidence
 Overall, the model shows a relationship between CSA and later adjustment in the mother’s offspring, partially mediated by the mother’s mental health (mainly anxiety) and maternal confidence – the link between CSA and later maternal confidence is also partially mediated by mental health

Question 11

• Intergenerational transmission issues associated with CSA – Paredes, Leifer, & Kilbane (2001)

Answer 11

o Investigated a parent’s developmental history and personal psychological resources; children’s characteristics, parent-child relationship; contextual sources of stress and support
o Maternal history of sexual abuse was related to negative outcomes for the child – these mothers focused on their own feelings about the abuse rather than on supporting the child
o Maternal drug and alcohol abuse were related to child externalising
o Mothers who were more supportive of their children reported more physical complaints

Question 12

• CSA and Self-efficacy research

Answer 12

o The trauma of CSA attenuates children’s agency or sense of efficacy – Diehl & Prout (2002)
o Social support and high self-efficacy buffer the effect of trauma on health outcomes
o Abused children may become externally focused as they direct their attention to external threats rather than to developing self-awareness skills
o CSA also hinders development od self-efficacy as the focus is on negative self-evaluation
o Self-blame and self-denigration are associated with low self-efficacy
o CSA associated with poor self regulatory skills and emotional regulation
o Saigh et al (1995) showed that trauma and PTSD symptomatology affected self-efficacy most strongly is social situations, enlistment of family support and use of emotional regulation strategies
o The emotional self-efficacy literature may provide an alternative for PTSD treatment and the development of better coping skills and emotional expression

Question 13

• Children’s evidence as CSA victims

Answer 13

o There is concern over the reliability (how accurate are the details) and
 o truthfulness (intention to present accurate information) of children’s evidence

Question 14

• Determining the reliability of children’s evidence

Answer 14

o Although children’s competence to testify is an important consideration in enabling children to testify, their competence does not guarantee that reliable and truthful evidence will be forthcoming
o The reliability of a child’s evidence is not simply determined by the child’s age and testimonial competence
o Rather, the situation about which they are testifying, the format of the pre-trial interview, and aspects of the cross examination all influence the reliability of the information children report.

Question 15

• Child witness competence – factors

Answer 15

o Memory skills
o Language and communicaton skills
o Lying and truth telling skills (and knowing that telling the truth is important)

Question 16

• Children’s understanding of truth telling has been found to be

Answer 16

o Unrelated to the accuracy and honesty of their reports
o More related to dishonest reports than to truthful ones
o Related to the accuracy of their reports
o Related to truth telling under specific conditions

Question 17

• Competence and truth telling

Answer 17

o Children (3 to 6 yr olds) who lied about an adult’s transgression were better able to correctly identify a lie than children who told the truth about the transgression
 o This finding replicates previous research
 o Evidently, having acquired knowledge about lying and truth telling does not guarantee truth telling.
 o An important factor is what they expect will happen as a result of telling the truth or lying.

Question 18

• Outcome expectations: anticipated punishment for truth telling

Answer 18

o The more children anticipate punishment for truth telling the less likely they are to tell the truth and the less positively truth telling is evaluated
o Reassurances about telling the truth are likely to increase truth telling and its evaluation

Question 19

• Lying in the context of CSA: False denials

Answer 19

o Children’s lying about CSA is often reactive. That is denying that the abuse occurred (false denial) or simply withholding information about it (omission)
o This links to the pervasive view that most children do not disclose CSA. Although controversial, there is consistent evidence that disclosing sexual abuse is problematic for many children

Question 20

• Impediments to disclosure

Answer 20

o Nature of the information to be reported
o Relationship of the perpetrator to the child
o Promise to keep the abuse secret
o Threats by perpetrators about revealing the abuse
o Fear of disbelief

Question 21

• Summit’s Model of the disclosure process (5)

Answer 21

o 1. Secrecy
o 2. Helplessness
o 3. Entrapment and accommodation
o 4. Delayed, conflicted and unconvincing disclosure
o 5. Retraction
 Weakness – based on clinical data rather than empirically tested

Question 22

• Sorenson and Snow’s Model of Disclosure (4)

Answer 22

o 1. Denial
o 2. Disclosure
 A) tentative
 B) active
o 3. Recant (76%)
o 4. Reaffirm
 From social workers looking at files

Question 23

• Bussey and Grimbeek’s Disclosure Model

Answer 23

o Based on social cognitive theory
 1. Information
 2. Motivational factors
• Self-efficacy beliefs
• Expectations of others
• Expectation of self
o The model of triadic reciprocal interaction posits that the reporting of the event is dependent on the child’s conception of it and the conditions under which the reporting occurs

Question 24

• Laboratory study involving an adult’s transgression

Answer 24

o Adult stealing stickers 64 exposed to transgression, 64 not.
o No false allegations made
o 11 of 64 disclosed. Others falsely denied or omitted

Question 25

• Child Witness reliability

Answer 25

o Young children’s reports, in response to open-ended questions, are as accurate as those provided by older children and adults
o However, young children report less information

Question 26

• The double jeopardy for children

Answer 26

o Report less information about an event during open-ended recall than do older children and adults
o Because of this, they are asked additional questions to increase their reporting of information and these questions are often suggestive
o Because young children are more vulnerable to suggestive questioning that older children and adults, the reliability of this additional information is questionable

Question 27

• Solution to suggestibility

Answer 27

o Initially it was believed that suggestive questioning by interviewers was inevitable. Therefore, the burden was placed on children to resist suggestive questions and the research focused on the development of various strategies that children could use to strengthen their resistive capacities
o Questions type
 Training interviews to avoid leading
o Retrieval aids
 Narrative elaboration
 Props and drawings
 Physical context reinstatement
 Cognitive context reinstatement
 Overall, children do provide more information with the aid of retrieval cues. However, the greater reliance on external cues the greater potential for inaccurate reporting

Question 28

• Interview protocols

Answer 28

o Cognitive interview
o Step-wise interview
o NICHD interview protocol (most widely used)

Question 29

• The need for further interview protocol development

Answer 29

o Interviewers have difficulty using these interview protocols even after substantial training (NICHD)
o Retrieval aids are not an integral part of the step-wise or the NICHD interview protocols. In these interviews more emphasis is placed on the question format and the use of a funnel approach
o In contrast, the cognitive interview places more emphasis on the use of retrieval aids and devotes less attention to the questions asked

Question 30

• The Social Cognitive Interview

Answer 30

o Protocol that uses retrieval aids and questioning styles in a way that supports the child to report as much accurate information as they are capable of within the linguistic and cognitive constraints of their level of functioning
o Aims to facilitate children’s recollections through the use of retrieval aids and to enhance their communicative competence through the use of supporting interviewing practices
o The retrieval aid is cognitive context reinstatement
o Communicative competence is enabled by the interviewer scaffolding the child’s narrative. In particular, the interviewer supports children to provide detailed descriptions of objects, people and events. They further support children’s temporal sequencing through specific directed prompts.

Question 31

• Phases of social cognitive interview

Answer 31

o Rapport development
o Pre-interview and training – good rules
o Cognitive context reinstatement
o Narrative free recall: Open-ended narration
o Questioning and clarification phase
o Information about specific people
o Evaluative questions
o Final memory search
o Closure: interview ending
o Question types
 Encouragers
 Prompts: temporal and specific
 Directive prompts: temporal and specific
 Clarifications
 Summary statements
o Get more correct information and less incorrect information

Question 32

• Unreliable evidence

Answer 32

o Age or competence to testify will not guarantee truthful and reliable testimony
o Factors likely to contribute to unreliable evidence
 Poor interviewing practices
 Coaching by a malicious parent
 A trusted perpetrator who swears the child to secrecy
 Anticipated negative outcome for truth telling.

Question 33

• Child witness impediments

Answer 33

o Competence
 Addressed by allowing all children to give evidence
o Interviewing – video taping of Evidence-in-chief
 This is primary evidence
o Facing the accused – closed circuit TV
o Cross examination
o Conviction rate low – 18%