NCJ Number
112436
Date Published
1986
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This article discusses a survey of 965 high school students in Minneapolis and 2 rural communities to assess the effectiveness of sexual assault preventative information children receive from their parents.
Abstract
The study also assessed the effect of socioeconomic and gender/socialization on whether information is received, its explicitness, and subsequent effect on children's ability to report victimization. The survey consisted of 54 questions garnering information on demographics, specific knowledge of sexual abuse, and detailed reports of incidence. Variables such as whether parents told children about sexual assault, who (mother or father) did the telling, explicitness of information imparted, age children were told, and demographic and socioeconomic factors were analyzed. The purpose was to determine the effect of these variables on reported victimization as described in a composite sexual victimization variable created from answers to specific survey questions. This dependent variable was defined as all incidents in which respondents were felt, grabbed, or kissed against their wishes, forced to touch the sexual organs of the perpetrator, or forced to submit to sexual intercourse or other sexual acts. Findings indicate that remarried, black, non-Catholic, white-collar, and better educated families all gave children sexual assault information and more explicit information than did nuclear, white, Catholic, blue-collar, and less educated families. Tabular data and 25 references. (Author abstract modified)