NCJ Number
191110
Journal
Child Maltreatment Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2001 Pages: 344-352
Date Published
November 2001
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this study was to determine the proportion of biological mothers who both believed and protected their sexually abused children once the sexual abuse had been disclosed.
Abstract
The objectives were to determine the percentage of nonoffending, biological mothers who believed and protected their sexually abused children, and to examine maternal, child, and situational characteristics that predicted such concordance. Data were collected on a sample of 435 mothers. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to identify the proportion and the predictors of maternal belief and protective action. Results showed that mothers were more likely to believe and protect when they postponed the birth of their first child until reaching adulthood. Mothers were also more likely to believe and protect when they were not a current sexual partner of the offender, when they did not have knowledge of the sexual abuse prior to the child’s disclosure, and when the victim did not exhibit sexualized behavior. It was concluded that these findings have the potential to enhance the efficacy of child welfare interventions by underscoring the importance of maternal belief and protection. The sizeable proportion of mothers served by Child Protective Services who did believe and take protective action contradicted the conventional assumption that the majority of these mothers were resistant, culpable, and unconcerned about the safety of their children. Further study is recommended to investigate predictors of ambivalent maternal responses to a child’s sexual victimization. 4 tables, 37 references