The prevalence of child sexual abuse with online sexual abuse added.
Child abuse epidemiology
Internet crimes against children
Online abuse
Technology facilitated abuse
Journal
Child abuse & neglect
ISSN: 1873-7757
Titre abrégé: Child Abuse Negl
Pays: England
ID NLM: 7801702
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
15 Jan 2024
15 Jan 2024
Historique:
received:
30
05
2023
revised:
07
12
2023
accepted:
05
01
2024
medline:
16
1
2024
pubmed:
16
1
2024
entrez:
16
1
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Research efforts are measuring various forms of online sexual abuse. There is a need to incorporate such measures of online sexual abuse into the calculation of overall prevalence rates for child sexual abuse. A sample of 2639 respondents aged 18-to-28 was recruited from a nationally representative online panel. Using an online questionnaire, respondents were assessed via self-report about 9 types of online sexual abuse in childhood and were also assessed with 2 questions that have been used to assess generic child sexual abuse prevalence in previous surveys. The addition of the online abuse to the generic questions about child sexual abuse raised the overall prevalence rate from 13.5 % to 21.7 %. The rate for females increased from 19.8 % to 31.6 % and for males from 6.2 % to 10.8 %. The largest independent contribution to the overall combined increase were the offenses involving non-consensual image sharing and voluntary online sexual interactions with an impermissibly older adult partner. The inclusion of the online sexual abuse exposures also increased the ability to identify the survivors with the highest levels of current psychological distress. The study highlights the importance of counting and including online sexual abuse in efforts to estimate the overall prevalence of childhood sexual abuse. The paper proposes 2 or 3 questions that could be added to sexual abuse questionnaires to assess these online offenses efficiently.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
OBJECTIVE
Research efforts are measuring various forms of online sexual abuse. There is a need to incorporate such measures of online sexual abuse into the calculation of overall prevalence rates for child sexual abuse.
PARTICIPANTS
METHODS
A sample of 2639 respondents aged 18-to-28 was recruited from a nationally representative online panel.
METHODS
METHODS
Using an online questionnaire, respondents were assessed via self-report about 9 types of online sexual abuse in childhood and were also assessed with 2 questions that have been used to assess generic child sexual abuse prevalence in previous surveys.
RESULTS
RESULTS
The addition of the online abuse to the generic questions about child sexual abuse raised the overall prevalence rate from 13.5 % to 21.7 %. The rate for females increased from 19.8 % to 31.6 % and for males from 6.2 % to 10.8 %. The largest independent contribution to the overall combined increase were the offenses involving non-consensual image sharing and voluntary online sexual interactions with an impermissibly older adult partner. The inclusion of the online sexual abuse exposures also increased the ability to identify the survivors with the highest levels of current psychological distress.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSIONS
The study highlights the importance of counting and including online sexual abuse in efforts to estimate the overall prevalence of childhood sexual abuse. The paper proposes 2 or 3 questions that could be added to sexual abuse questionnaires to assess these online offenses efficiently.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38227986
pii: S0145-2134(24)00003-6
doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106634
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
106634Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Declaration of competing interest There is no conflict of interest relating to this manuscript, nor any financial interests.