Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Child sexual abuse; Sexually abused children;
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine sexually and non-sexually abused children's conceptions of what constitutes sexual abuse. Thirty sexually abused and 31 non-sexually abused children were read a narrative vignette describing a potentially sexually abusive incident and a neutral control vignette. The children were then asked a standard list of questions about general conceptions of sexual abuse, the reasons for the perpetrator's behavior, the characteristics of both victim and perpetrator, and the consequences of the abuse for both the abuser and victim. The responses were compared across sex, control and sexual abuse vignettes, and prior sexual abuse. Significant differences were found between the non-sexually abused and sexually abused groups on three of six dependent measures. Sexually abused children were better able to explain why the victim agreed to the perpetrator's request, explain what sexual abuse is, and identify the consequences for the sexual abuse victim in the vignette. overall, sexually abused children showed more awareness of the abusive nature of the sexual abusive vignette than the non-sexually abused children.
Year of Submission
1991
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Augustine Osman
Second Advisor
Joel Wells
Third Advisor
Jane Wong
Date Original
1991
Object Description
1 PDF file (86 leaves)
Copyright
©1991 Michelle R. Brundage
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Brundage, Michelle R., "Sexually Abused and Nonsexually Abused Children’s Conceptions of Sexual Abuse" (1991). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2214.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2214
Comments
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