Working with Latino Clients Dealing with Issues of Child Sexual Abuse

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Working with Latino Clients Dealing with Issues
of Child Sexual Abuse

• Ana Nuñez, Psy.D.
• Ana Correa, MSW

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Goals

• Identify characteristics that shape Latino
  families la familia and how this may impact
  sexual abuse in this community
• What does the research show?
• Discuss culturally sensitive prevention, advocacy
  and treatment approaches for this community

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Latinos
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Who are Latinos?

• Language
• Religion
• Geographical origin
• Social Class
• Acculturation
• Education

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Statistics of Latinos in the US(U.S. Census
Bureau, 2010)

• 52 million or 16 of population
• 23 of children
• 61 children live with both parents
• 75 spoke Spanish at home
• Poverty rate of 26
• 62 have at least a high school education

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Abuse Statistics(US Department of Health and
Human Services, 2010)

• Estimated 695,000 abuse cases
• 21 involved Latino children
• 9 sexual abuse cases

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Characteristics and Impact on AbuseDe Eso No
Se Habla (We dont talk about that)

• Collectivism
• Simpatía
• Familiasmo
• Dignidad
• Respeto
• Personalismo
• Compradazco

• Time Orientation
• Machismo
• Marianismo
• Self Reliance
• Fatalism
• Cultural beliefs regarding worldview
• Shame

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What does the research show?
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Research Regarding Child Sexual Abuse Among the
Latino Population

• Limited
• Contradictory results.why?
• Prevalence Rates
• Underreported (Romero, Wyatt, Burns, Carmona
  Solis 1999)

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Research Results Suggest

• More likely to experience sexual abuse from the
  age of 7(Romero, Wyatt, Loeb, Carmona, Solis,
  1999)
• More likely to be abused by an extended family
  member(Levy, 1988 Huston, Parra, Phihoda,
  Foulds, 1995 Sanders-Phillips, Moisan,
  Wadlington, Morgan English, 1997 Arroyo,
  Simpson Aragon, 1997 Katerndahl, Burge,
  Kellogs Parra, 2005 Kenny McEachern, 2007
  Guerra, 2007) and this was correlated to a
  younger age (Sanders-Phillips et. al, 1995)
• Took longer to disclose abuse (Huston et. al.,
  1995 Stroud, 2001 Shaw, Lewis, Loeb, Rosado,
  2001)
• Have perpetrator living in the home (Feiring,
  Coares, Taska, 2001)

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Research Results Suggest (cont.)

• Compared to other groups Latinos received less
  maternal support (Sanders-Phillips et. al.,
  1995 Feiring et al., 2001)
• Higher levels of family conflict
  (Sanders-Phillips, et al., 1995 Katerndahl, et.
  al., 2005)
• Siblings were more likely to be abused
  (Sanders-Phillips et. al., 1995 Huston et. al,
  1995)
• Latinas who experienced abuse involving
  penetration showed more symptoms of
  depression/anxiety (Mennen, 1995)why?

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Barriers and Facilitators to Disclosure and
Services
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Barriers to Disclosure(Iturrioz, 2000)

• Receiving and anticipating a negative response
• Desire to protect others from the pain/burden of
  disclosure
• Felt ashamed
• Lack of support
• Cultural Beliefs

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Barriers that Prevent Latino Families from
Seeking Services

• Unaware of community resources
• Lack of trust
• Lack of resources
• Fear of deportation
• Language
• Use of other resources

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Facilitators to Disclosure and Service Use

• Knowing others had similar experiences
• Supportive relationships
• Receiving a supportive response to the disclosure
• Latino forensic interviewers had a higher rate
  of disclosure
• 60 of reports were made by family members
• Making resources available

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Culturally sensitive prevention programs
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Typical Prevention Programs(Fontes, Cruz
Tabachnick, 2001)

• Most occurs in schools
• Not specific to cultural or linguistic background
• Effect on actual victimization is less clear
  although it is effective in increasing knowledge,
  increasing the likelihood of disclosure and
  increasing safety skills
• Usually not directed towards adults

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Prevention Program

• STOP IT NOW (Fontes et. al., 2001)
• Focus groups indicated
• Recognition of sexual abuse
• Deemphasized possibility of sexual abuse
  occurring in family relationships (other than
  stepfathers)
• Focus on recognizing child internalizing symptoms
  but did not include externalizing symptoms
• Males expressed wanting to hurt offender
• Confusion regarding age of consent/statutory rape
• Myths
• Use of Stories

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Prevention Program (cont.)

• Taking Care of Me (Levy, 1988)
• Recommendations
• Providing information to both parent and child
• Problem solving and coping skills
• Providing community resources
• Safety vs. sex issue

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What does this mean for the development and
implementation of programs?
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What does this mean for the development and
implementation of prevention programs?

• Awareness of differences on views (Arroyo, et.
  al., 1997 Rodriguez-Srednicki Twaite, 1999)
• Target community (Millán Rabiner, 1992)
• Target parents with school age children
• Consider famialismo
• Need for psychoeducation
• Provide resources
• Use creativity (dichos/cuento time)

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Providing Culturally Sensitive Advocacy
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Advocacy with Families of Survivors of Child
Sexual Abuse

• Allow considerable amount of time for engagement
• Understand cultural dynamics and identified
  specific needs
• Available bicultural and bilingual staff
• Provide psychoeducation
• Multiple resources
• Need for research

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Providing Culturally Sensitive Treatment to
Latino Children who are Survivors of Sexual Abuse
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Providing Culturally Sensitive Treatment

• Beginning stages of research for providing
  treatment for Latino survivors of child sexual
  abuse
• Evidence based treatment maybe limited
• Last resort
• Discuss expectations and assess cultural
  worldview
• Be mindful of characteristics such as
  respeto,personalismo, simpatia and fatalismo
• Symptom presentation
• Be aware of language use in trauma narrative

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Vengasé y tomesé un Café con Pan(quote from
support group)

• Nos sirvio mucho porque pudimos decir lo que
  teniamos adentro y que no podemos decirlo afuera
  y saber que otras personas estan pasando lo
  mismo.
• (It helped us a lot because we could speak about
  what we had inside and cant talk about no where
  else and to know that other people are going
  through the same.)

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• Ana L. Nuñez, Psy.D.
• Mental Health Manager
• 312-492-3185
• anunez_at_ChicagoCAC.org
• Ana Correa, MSW
• Family Advocacy Manager
• 312-492-3863
• acorrea_at_ChicagoCAC.org
• Chicago Childrens Advocacy Center
• 1240 South Damen Avenue
• Chicago, IL 60608