Citation

Karkoskova S, Ropovik I. J. Child Sex. Abus. 2019; 28(4): 452-471.

Affiliation

Department of Preschool and Elementary Education and Psychology , University of Presov , Presov , Slovakia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10538712.2018.1553224

PMID

30526439

Abstract

The present study aimed to assess the prevalence and characteristics of child sexual abuse (CSA) in a large-scale sample of Slovak late adolescents. Randomized cluster sampling was used to sample 2186 students in their final school year of secondary school with mean age of 18.6 years (SD = .7 years). The study employed the Child Sexual Abuse Questionnaire consisting of multiple behavior-specific questions. The prevalence of CSA was analyzed separately for three clusters of CSA and gender. The prevalence of non-contact forms of CSA was 40.6% among girls and 17.7% among boys. CSA with physical contact without penetration was reported by 30.2% girls and 11.6% boys. The prevalence of CSA with penetration was 5.6% among girls and 1.3% among boys. More than half of CSA occurred between 16 and 18 years of age. The severity of abuse was positively associated with acquaintance to the perpetrator. Roughly 43-56% disclosed the abuse to another person. The majority of disclosed CSA was revealed to peers and partners. A negligible proportion of CSA instances were reported to the police. Prevention activities should consider a broad spectrum of CSA in order to counteract tendencies to associate CSA only with unwanted sexual intercourse.

Language: en

Keywords

Child sexual abuse; disclosure; late adolescence; prevalence