Postdisclosure caregiver support has long been considered a key factor in the functioning of children after their disclosure of sexual abuse, and numerous studies and reviews support this relationship. Yet, a closer look at this literature suggests that support for this relationship might not be as strong or consistent as reported. The purpose of this article is to review studies assessing the relationship between caregiver support of sexually abused children and postdisclosure functioning of their children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Interpers Violence
May 2013
Although self-reported sexual assault perpetrated by men against women has been well documented among college men, less is known about self-reported perpetration among convicted sex offenders and community men. This study provides unique descriptive and comparative information on sexual assaults in these understudied populations. Participants were 40 convicted sex offenders and 49 demographically comparable community men who completed the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES; Abbey, Parkhill, & Koss, 2005; Koss, Gidycz, & Wisniewski, 1987) and other surveys to capture the promiscuous sex and hostile masculinity pathways posited by the confluence model (Malamuth, 2003).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this study was to compare how parental support, attachment of the parent, and the child's report regarding the quality of the parent/child relationship differentially relate to child and parent reports of the child's symptomatology. After controlling for those variables that covary with it, parental support was only significantly related to 2 of 17 scales of parent- and child-reported symptomatology. Parent attachment and the child's report regarding the quality of the parent/child relationship were better predictors than parental support of the child's outcome but varied in the manner in which they contributed to outcome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome nonoffending parents experience ambivalence in feelings, belief, and behavior toward their children after their children's disclosure of sexual abuse. Traditionally, it has been assumed that ambivalent nonoffending parents are not adequately supportive of their children after disclosure. In contrast, this study of 29 nonoffending mothers whose resident partners sexually abused their children tests a theoretical model of postdisclosure responses of nonoffending parents in which it is hypothesized that parental support and ambivalence can coexist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study introduces potential risk factors for victimization and perpetration of sexual harassment among teens not previously studied. The first set of analyses compared histories of perpetration and victimization by gender, as well as the relationship between risk factors and perpetration or victimization. For girls (r = .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Interpers Violence
February 2004
A concern in the intervention with sexually abused children is the support of their nonoffending guardians after disclosure of the abuse. Approximately a third of nonoffending guardians respond with vacillation in support, and these nonoffending guardians are at greater risk for having their children removed. This article reconceptualizes vacillation in support as an ambivalent response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurrent child sexual abuse prevention programs assume that, by targeting potential victims, they can reduce the prevalence of child sexual abuse. This article presents findings, however, that suggest this assumption is flawed. First, recent studies indicate that the prevalence of abuse has not decreased over the history of prevention programs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The purpose of this paper is to present a newly developed measure of guardian support, the Needs-Based Assessment of Parental (Guardian) Support (NAPS), an empirical evaluation of that measure, and its comparison with another measure of guardian support. The theoretical model that underlies this measure applies humanistic theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs to the understanding of guardian support.
Method: The study employed a cross-sectional nonexperimental survey design using 183 nonoffending guardians who accompanied children presenting for a medical/forensic examination for sexual abuse.
The purpose of this article is to present a study of intervening variables for guardian support. It is this article's thesis that guardian support is better conceptualized as a complex reaction to the disclosure of abuse that is shaped by a number of factors, some of the most important of which are the stressors impinging on guardians and their previous patterns of relating within the family. The sample included 92 guardians of sexually abused children presenting at a medical center for a sexual abuse medical and forensic evaluation.
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