Abstract:
Worrisome sexual behavior (WSB) is often described as an outcome specific to child sexual abuse (CSA). Therefore, it is highly relevant to study WSB in relation to sexual abuse, especially in very young children, as it is hard to recognize sexual abuse in children who have limited verbal capacities of disclosing. Over time, literature describing WSB following CSA has gradually broadened. However, a gap remains regarding the long-term development of WSB in children who were sexually abused during infancy or very early childhood. To our knowledge, our study is the first to examine developmentally-related sexual behavior versus sexual abuse-specific behavior longitudinally in children who were sexually abused at a very young age. In total, we examined the sexual behavior, as reported by parents of 45 children who experienced early-age sexual abuse for a period of more than five years. Overall, we found that WSB is likely to be a CSA-specific and potentially long-term outcome for children who were sexually abused at a very young age. Despite the decrease in sexual abuse-specific behavior over time, the level of this behavior was still significantly high 8 years after the sexual abuse. This finding supports long-term monitoring and assessment and intervention for WSB over time. Despite these findings, it is important to note that WSB does not serve as proof of sexual abuse in children; likewise, when a child does not present with WSB, it does not indicate the absence of a substantiated history of sexual abuse.
摘要:
令人担忧的性行为(WSB)通常被描述为儿童性虐待(CSA)特有的结果。因此,研究WSB与性虐待密切相关,尤其是在非常年幼的孩子中,因为很难识别语言披露能力有限的儿童的性虐待。随着时间的推移,描述CSA之后的WSB的文献已经逐渐扩大。然而,在婴儿期或幼儿期遭受性虐待的儿童中,WSB的长期发展仍存在差距。据我们所知,我们的研究首次纵向研究了在很小的时候遭受性虐待的儿童中与发育相关的性行为和性虐待特定行为.总的来说,我们检查了性行为,据45名儿童的父母报告,这些儿童经历了五年以上的早期性虐待。总的来说,我们发现,对于在很小的时候遭到性虐待的儿童,WSB很可能是CSA特有的潜在长期结局.尽管性虐待行为随着时间的推移有所减少,性虐待后8年,这种行为的水平仍然很高。这一发现支持WSB长期监测、评估和干预。尽管有这些发现,值得注意的是,WSB并不作为儿童性虐待的证据;同样,当孩子没有出现WSB时,这并不表明没有被证实的性虐待史。