Teachers’ Knowledge and Beliefs About Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract

Child sexual abuse is one of the main types of abuse still to be addressed within the field of education, yet the education system itself can serve as a primary tool for its prevention. A better understanding of teachers' knowledge and beliefs about child sexual abuse will allow us to establish key starting points from which to utilize the system for prevention. Four hundred and fifty teachers participated in this study, completing a questionnaire regarding their knowledge and beliefs about child sexual abuse. The study revealed that over half the teachers, 65.3% (n = 294), had never received any type of training in child sexual abuse education and that the majority were not familiar with methods of identifying child sexual abuse, 90.7% (n = 279). Various mistaken beliefs were identified among the participating teachers, such as pathological profiles of abusers, that the vast majority of child sexual abuse implies violent behavior, and that there cannot be abusers the same age as the victim. These results indicate that knowledge deficiencies do exist about child sexual abuse among teachers and highlight the need for training in this field.

Okul Öncesi̇ Eği̇ti̇m Öğretmenleri̇ni̇n Çocuğun Ci̇nsel Eği̇ti̇mi̇ne İli̇şki̇n Görüşleri̇

“…However, it was seen that teachers had the confusion about how to follow the way in case of neglect and abuse. Similarly, In the surveys (Márquez-Flores, Márquez-Hernández & Granados-Gámez, 2016;Tuncay and Ozer, 2015), researchers conclusion that the majority of teacher do not know how to behave in case of neglect and abuse. As a recommendation, it has been proposed to increase the training on sexual education for teachers and to give trainings on how teachers will follow the cases of neglect and abuse.…”

Construcción y validación del instrumento “Conocimientos para la detección del abuso sexual en la infancia”

“…De acuerdo con lo planteado anteriormente y al no encontrar un instrumento que identificara el nivel de conocimiento que tienen los estudiantes o profesionales de la salud frente al abuso sexual, se desarrolló uno fácil y de rápido diligenciamiento, que fue evaluado por 22 expertos como una herramienta útil y esencial para estimar el nivel de conocimientos sobre: el concepto que se tiene sobre abuso sexual; los signos y síntomas, que permiten identificar los comportamientos y la evidencia física de la situación del menor; los factores determinantes que dan una contextualización general y una intervención oportuna sobre la situación que esté presentando el niño, niña o adolescente, o en su defecto para proteger y orientar a quienes ya han sido víctimas de abuso (29); así como las actitudes y creencias frente al abuso sexual, que fue una de las categorías con una alta aceptación tanto en la validez aparente como de contenido. Al contrastar esta categoría con lo que refiere la literatura, se destaca que la familia es el principal canal social donde el individuo fundamenta y transfiere los valores y tradiciones de generación en generación, permitiéndole construir en cada uno de sus miembros: el cuidado, la seguridad, la protección y la socialización (30)(31). Es por esta razón, que se hace necesario determinar y comprender los factores protectores y de riesgo, las creencias y costumbres que puedan o no favorecer el desarrollo saludable del menor dentro del contexto familiar.…”

Expressions of domestic violence against adolescents: Educators’ speeches

“…It is noteworthy that educators did not mention the existence of sexual violence in their speeches. This may be associated with the fact that they do not receive guidance during academic and vocational training to identify signs of this phenomenon (21) . Therefore, the professional incapacity to suspect sexual abuse is signaled, predisposing the masking of the problematic and continuing victimization of adolescents.…”