Parenting and Childhood Sexual Abuse

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Parenting and Childhood Sexual Abuse
Amani Ahmed, Pam Altemos, Alicia Bowles, Brooke
Grover, Brijan Knaap, Katie Marsh, and Lisa
Meijer
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Introduction
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At least one in five girls and one in ten to
twenty boys will be sexually abused at some point
in their childhood (Finkelhor, 1994)
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What this means to you It means if you attend a
class or concert with 100 attendees, between
10 and 20 of those in the room were sexually
abused as a child (www.stopitnow.org)
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Background and Significance
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Parenting and Childhood Sexual Abuse

• Child sexual abuse defined sexual activities
  involving a child and an adult and is
  distinguished by several elements
• Parenting functioning is greatly affected by
  three components
• - Personality development/ psychological
  well-being
• - Child Characteristics
• - Social support and network

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Belskys Process Model of the Determinants of
Parenting

Marital Relations
Social Network
Personality
Developmental History
Parenting
Child Characteristics
Work
Child Development
Source Belsky, J. (1984). The determinants of
parenting A process model. Child Development.
55, 83-98.
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Literature Review

• Belsky, J. (1984). The determinants of parenting
  A process model. Child Development. 55, 83-96.
• Sigelman, C. Rider, E. (2003). Life-Span Human
  development (4th ed.). Belmont, CA Wadsworth
  Publishing.

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Literature Review Parenting Sense of
Competence Scale

• Gibaud-Wallston, J. Wandersman, L.P. (1978).
  Development and utility of the Parenting Sense of
  Competence Scale. Paper presented at the annual
  meeting of the American Psychological
  Association, Toronto.
• Johnston, C. Mash, E. (1989). A measure of
  parenting and satisfaction and efficacy. Journal
  of Clinical Child Psychology. 18(2), 167-175.

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Literature ReviewQuestionnaire of Childhood
Experiences

• Finkelhor, D. (1979). Sexually victimized
  children. Chapter 3 A survey on childrens
  sexual victimization. pp. 34-52. The Free Press
  New York.
• Briere, J. Runtz, M. (1988). Symptomatology
  associated with childhood sexual victimization in
  a non-clinical sample. Child Abuse and Neglect.
  12, 51-59.

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Gaps in Literature

• Limited number of studies that focus on the
  relationship between parenting and childhood
  sexual experience

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Study Aims and Hypothesis
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Hypothesis

• We hypothesize that a negative correlation will
  be found between a mothers sense of competence
  in parenting and experiences with childhood
  sexual abuse

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Contribution to Social Work

• This study will contribute to the current social
  work knowledge base by offering further
  information on the topic of parenting and child
  sexual abuse

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Methods Sample, Measure, Procedure
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Sample

• Two hundred four mothers
• Convenience sample
• Friends
• Family
• Colleagues
• Acquaintances
• Clients

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Measures

• Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC)
• Survey of Childhood Experiences

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Parenting Sense of Competence Scale

• Originally developed for new parents
• Manipulated by Johnston and Mash in 1989 for use
  with children ages 4 to 9
• Further modified for this study to be used
  strictly with mothers
• Considers two factors
• Satisfaction reflects frustration, anxiety and
  motivation in parenting
• Efficiency reflects competence, problem solving
  ability and capability

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Survey of Childhood Experiences

• Examines childhood sexual experiences using a
  community standard to define victimization based
  on the age of the child and age of the abuser
• Modified version of Finkelhors survey was used
  for this study with 10 open-ended questions about
  the participants childhood sexual experience

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Procedure

• Single post-test only design
• IRB Approval
• Informal self-administered pilot test

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Procedure

• Survey was distributed including
• Letter of invitation
• Survey
• Blank return envelope

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Procedure

• Graduate students input data into SPSS
• Data was cleaned by graduate class as a whole

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Results
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Results

• 204 mothers were surveyed
• 109 indicated at least one experience with
  childhood sexual abuse (53.4)
• 95 reported no history of childhood sexual
  experience (46)

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Results

• 109 indicated at least one experience with
  childhood sexual abuse (53.4)
• 95 reported no history of childhood sexual
  experience (46)

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Results

• PSOC global mothers score
• N166
• M44.86
• SD 9.942

• Pearson correlations
• Correlation between PSOC and CES scales was not
  significant

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Discussion
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Discussion

• Results indicate that there is no relationship
  between childhood sexual abuse and a mothers
  sense of parenting
• Past research has indicated that the determinants
  of parenting are indirectly affected by the
  influence of ones developmental history (Belsky,
  1984). The results of this study, however, did
  not support this notion
• Hypothesis not confirmed

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Strengths

• Study attempts to gather information about a
  possible relationship that has had limited
  research thus far and fill in gaps in current
  literature
• Reliability and the validity of the PSOC scale
• Feedback gathered from the self-administered
  pilot test

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Limitations

• Size of sample
• Diversity of sample
• Type of sample - Convenience vs. Random
• Measures
• -Directions
• -Understanding of questions
• -Sensitive nature of questions

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Implications for social work Practice

• Study will be helpful in gaining a more holistic
  understanding of the interlocking factors
  influencing these issues
• Knowledge gained can be incorporated into social
  work and therapeutic settings

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Questions
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Thank you!