Framework for Nordic youth surveys on child sexual abuse and exposure to violence outside and in the family.

Abstract

Framework for Nordic youth surveys on child sexual abuse and exposure to violence outside and in the family. Nordic co-operationNordic cooperation is one of the world's most extensive forms of regional collaboration, involving Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and three autonomous areas: the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland.Nordic cooperation has firm traditions in politics, the economy, and culture. It plays an important role in European and international collaboration, and aims at creating a strong Nordic community in a strong Europe.Nordic cooperation seeks to safeguard Nordic and regional interests and principles in the global community. The working group comprised of broad professional qualifications including pediatric, gynecology, child and adolescence psychiatry and psychology, sociology, criminology, public health and forensic sciences. The group's clinical and research experiences laid the basic for the recommendations in order to find a common Nordic framework for youth surveys on child abuse. These are presented in the present report.During two group meetings in June and August 2008, methods for data collection, key topics to be included in youth surveys and ethical issues related to including minors in a survey on sensitive topics were discussed. Based on experiences of the previous Nordic school and youth surveys, the research network in this report presents recommendations on the survey method and the key questions, which may describe the prevalence, character and consequences of sexual abuse and physical violence against children in the best way and, thus, ensure that comparable data on this issue is available in the Nordic countries. In October 2008 at a research network meeting, we represented our first results of 9th grade surveys conducted during 2008 in Finland and Denmark. Experiences on various practical issues concerning the implementation of Internet and lap-top based surveys were also discussed.By establishing a research network for a youth survey in different aspects of child violence in the Nordic countries, the aim was to encourage a joint Nordic framework. This aim has been met. At a dialogue meeting the Nordic researchers have agreed upon a survey model that may describe the current prevalence and character of child abuse and have tried to ensure future joint research projects on risk factors of child violence and abuse in the different Nordic countries based on comparable data. The project period according to the final plan consists of four subprojects: Karin Helweg-Larsen1. Statistics on violence 2. Youth surveys, the feasibility of a joint Nordic framework (the present project) 3. Evaluation of Rrestraining orders in the Nordic countries (besöksförbud) 4. Ethnic minority women and their exposure to violence The present report describes the planning of a framework for youth surveys, project number 2 which aims to ensure comparable data on sexual abuse and physical violence against children and adolescents in and outside the family. In the report is documented the ba...

Children’s disclosures of sexual abuse in a population-based sample

“…Most of the questions were based on Finnish modifications of well-known measures such as the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (Finkelhor, 2007(Finkelhor, , 2008Finkelhor, Ormrod, & Turner, 2007a,b,c), and the Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugarman, 1994). Questions about sexual experiences were based on a Finnish school survey conducted in 1988 (Sariola & Uutela, 1992 and a Danish school survey conducted in 2002(Helweg-Larsen, 2009. The questionnaire used in the survey in 2008 was pretested with 100 children (Ellonen & Pösö, 2011b).…”

Predictors and protective factors for adolescent Internet victimization: results from a 2008 nationwide Danish youth survey

“…Antisocial behaviour problems were measured by Nordic standardized questions (14) about antisocial behaviour during the previous year: having left tags or other graffiti on public property, having deliberately harmed school property, having ruined others’ belongings, having stolen items from a shop, having been in physical fights, having been physically cruel to people and having tried to force someone else into sexual activity. Antisocial behaviour was scored on a four‐point scale: 0 = ‘no’, 1 = ‘once during the past year’, 2 = ‘two to four times during the past year’ and 3 = ‘more than four times during the past year’.…”

Unge og selvskade: Resultater fra en dansk national repræsentativ undersøgelse i 2008

“…Undersøgelsens formål var at belyse omfang, karakter og mulige følgevirkninger af seksuelle overgreb og udsaettelse for fysisk vold i barndom og tidlige ungdom og at kortlaegge de unges egen adfaerd, deres sociale kontakter og familiemaessige baggrund. Undersøgelsen blev tilrettelagt i et nordisk samarbejde (Helweg-Larsen, 2009).…”