Assessing Sexual Interest in Children Using the Go/No-Go Association Test

Bartels, Ross M.; Beech, Anthony R.; Harkins, Leigh; Thornton, David

doi:10.1177/1079063216686119

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Originally developed to identify implicit racist attitudes, the Implicit Association Test [IAT (132) Convergent validity was supported by correlations with VTmeasures in few studies, self-report, and sexual offense history variables (r ranging from r = .27 to r = .30) (133). In an adapted IAT, the go/no-go association task (GNAT, a combination of the IAT and the go/no-go response inhibition task) Bartels and colleagues (134) could distinguish between individuals with a history of exclusive extrafamilial sexual offenses against children and those with exclusive intrafamilial offenses or offenses against both children and adults (N = 70) with good discrimination accuracy (AUC = .71, p < .007). However, only partial support was found for convergent validity between the GNAT and questionnaires on sexual thoughts and fantasies (134).…”

Section: Behavioral Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an adapted IAT, the go/no-go association task (GNAT, a combination of the IAT and the go/no-go response inhibition task) Bartels and colleagues (134) could distinguish between individuals with a history of exclusive extrafamilial sexual offenses against children and those with exclusive intrafamilial offenses or offenses against both children and adults (N = 70) with good discrimination accuracy (AUC = .71, p < .007). However, only partial support was found for convergent validity between the GNAT and questionnaires on sexual thoughts and fantasies (134).…”

Section: Behavioral Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are There Any Biomarkers for Pedophilia and Sexual Child Abuse? A Review

et al. 2020

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The use of biomarkers in medicine is a common and valuable approach in several clinical fields. Understanding the relationship between measurable biological processes and clinical outcomes not only is indispensable in the face of understanding physiological processes in healthy as well as in diseased organisms but also for understanding and evaluating treatment effects. Therefore, also in the context of forensic psychiatry, biomarkers and their potentially beneficial effects are of growing interest. The objective of this review is to examine if there are biomarkers that may serve as a tool to support diagnostic process, treatment evaluation, and risk assessment of pedophilic individuals and child sexual offenders. In the first part, we present an overview of the current neurobiological, as well as physiological and psychophysiological approaches to characterize pedophilia and child sexual offending. Secondly, we discuss and evaluate the impact of these approaches on the development of biomarkers for diagnosis, therapy, and risk assessment in pedophilic subjects and child sexual offenders. We conclude that a lot of research has already enhanced our neurobiological knowledge about pedophilia and child sexual offending. Although there surely exist promising parameters and approaches, in our view currently none of these is ready yet to serve as a clinically applicable diagnostic, response, or predictive biomarker for pedophilia and child sexual offending. Therefore, further work remains to be done. The development of a composite diagnostic biomarker to assess deviant sexual interest, combining several measures like functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalogram, eye tracking, and behavioral approaches seems to be most promising. A valid and reliable measurement of deviant sexual interest, insensitive to manipulations could significantly support clinical diagnostic process. Similarly, regarding therapy evaluation and risk assessment, a composite biomarker to assess inhibitory control functions seems to be promising. Furthermore, the application of the Research Domain Criteria-approach, a new approach for investigating and classifying mental disorders, offers the possibility to take research to a new level.

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Section: Behavioral Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Behavioral Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are There Any Biomarkers for Pedophilia and Sexual Child Abuse? A Review

et al. 2020

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“…Self-report measures of sexual fantasy can be viewed as direct indications of one's level of sexual interest. 34 Although self-report is considered susceptible to socially desirable responding, it is often used for the assessment of sexual interest in children 35e37 -probably due to its simple and economical implementation. In addition, it can be assumed that guaranteeing anonymity (eg, within an online survey) enhances truthful responding.…”

Section: Sexual Fantasies Involving Prepubescent or Pubescent Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Interest in Children Among Women in Two Nonclinical and Nonrepresentative Online Samples

et al. 2020

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Introduction: Regarding women, little research is available about the prevalence of sexual interest in children (SIC), especially in nonclinical samples. Aim: The present study aimed to investigate the extent to which adult women from 2 nonclinical and nonrepresentative samples indicate sexual interest in prepubescent and/or pubescent children. Methods: Participants took part in an online survey either via general websites or via websites directed toward individuals with a SIC. Main Outcome Measures: The self-report survey included questions about the use of online abuse material including children and teenagers as well as about sexual fantasies involving prepubescent and pubescent children. Both measures were included as main outcome measures. Results: Results showed that few women reported having used online abuse material including children (total sample: n ¼ 7 [0.8%], general websites: n ¼ 3 [0.4%], SIC websites: n ¼ 4 [9.5%]) or teenagers (total sample: n ¼ 44 [5.0%], general websites: n ¼ 37 [4.4%], SIC websites: n ¼ 7 [16.7%]). Results further revealed that some women reported sexual fantasies involving prepubescent (total sample: n ¼ 98 [7.0%], general websites: n ¼ 92 [6.8%], SIC websites: n ¼ 6 [11.1%]) or pubescent children (total sample: n ¼ 136 [9.6%], general websites: n ¼ 129 [9.5%], SIC websites: n ¼ 7 [13.0%]). Conclusions: The samples included are nonrepresentative and therefore not generalizable to the female population. Nevertheless, they strongly suggest that SIC is a phenomenon also found in women. We therefore recommend professionals in the field of sexual medicine to increase their attention and engagement for women with SIC. Based on the present results, the development of preventive treatment services specifically tailored to women with a SIC has to be strongly encouraged in the near future.

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“…1This quantitative review also includes measures that do not fall within the primary categories, including priming measures (e.g., Van Leeuwen et al, 2013), eye tracking (e.g., Fromberger et al, 2012), and variants of the IAT, such as the Single Category IAT (e.g., Hempel et al, 2013), Go/No-Go Association Test (GNAT; Bartels et al, 2018), and Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP; Dawson et al, 2009). …”

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confidence: 99%

How well do indirect measures assess sexual interest in children? A meta-analysis.

Pedneault¹,

Hilgard²,

Pettersen³

et al. 2021

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

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Objective: We quantitatively reviewed the construct validity evidence for all cognitively based indirect measures of sexual interest in prepubescent children (pedophilic interest) and pubescent children (hebephilic interest) using meta-analysis. Method: Studies were included if they presented scores on a cognitively based indirect measure of pedohebephilic interest for a sample of adolescent or adult males who had committed a sexual offense against a child 16 years of age or younger, or who reported sexual interest in children, and for a comparison group. Studies were also included if they reported on the strength of association between scores on an indirect measure and an independent indicator of pedohebephilic interest in a sample of males. We used meta-analysis with robust variance estimation to summarize effect sizes and metaregression to test potential moderators. Results: Cognitively based indirect measures of pedohebephilic interest showed a moderate difference between pedohebephilic (n = 2,552) and nonpedohebephilic males (n = 2,434), d = 0.61, 95% CI [0.46, 0.76], k = 39. A small-to-moderate correlation was also observed between indirect measures and independent indicators of pedohebephilic interest, r = .23, 95% CI [0.17, 0.28], k = 23, n = 3,623. These effects were qualified by substantial heterogeneity; however, most moderators we tested did not account for a significant amount of heterogeneity. Conclusions: Findings suggest that publication bias did not substantially distort the results. However, the lack of significant moderators suggests more research is needed to understand the conditions under which indirect measures best reflect pedohebephilic interest. Public Health Significance StatementThe body of evidence on cognitively based indirect measures of sexual interest in children (e.g., viewing or reaction time measures) suggests that they are promising and worthy of continued research, but more evidence is required before we can rely on these measures alone to make decisions that impact public safety or civil liberty.

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Assessing Sexual Interest in Children Using the Go/No-Go Association Test

Cited by 12 publications

References 60 publications

Are There Any Biomarkers for Pedophilia and Sexual Child Abuse? A Review

Are There Any Biomarkers for Pedophilia and Sexual Child Abuse? A Review

Sexual Interest in Children Among Women in Two Nonclinical and Nonrepresentative Online Samples

How well do indirect measures assess sexual interest in children? A meta-analysis.

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