NCJ Number
216913
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 30 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2006 Pages: 1227-1237
Date Published
November 2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined how mothers discovered that their children had been sexually abused.
Abstract
The study found that mothers of sexually abused children first learned of the abuse from a verbal report (42 percent) or the behaviors (15 percent) of the abused child. Almost half of the mothers sensed that something was different in the behavior and attitudes of their children prior to having definitive knowledge about the sexual abuse. Mothers engaged in actions designed to determine exactly what was occurring, including talking with their child about what had happened (66 percent) or watching the child's activities and interactions more closely (39 percent). For the mothers, the most convincing evidence of the abuse included the child's telling them of the abuse (74 percent), the child's behavior (66 percent), and the child's emotions (60 percent). The factor that had the greatest influence in increasing the mothers' uncertainty about whether the abuse had occurred was the abuser's denial (21 percent). The author advises that educating mothers about effective ways of exploring suspicions of sexual abuse and weighing the evidence for or against abuse may improve mothers' protective measures and expedite investigations. The study consisted of an exploratory survey of 125 nonabusive mothers of sexually abused children at 3 clinical sites. The sample was composed primarily of White and Black mothers in a Midwestern State. A focus group study was used to develop the survey instrument. The survey was analyzed by using descriptive statistics. 4 tables and 23 references