Non-offending Guardian Support and Protection in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse

191 Pages·2012·3.11 MB·English

by  Caroline Oliver

Non-offending Guardian Support and Protection in Cases of
Child Sexual Abuse: The Role of Risk Perception
by
Caroline Oliver

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of
Doctorate in Forensic Psychology Practice (ForenPsyD)

Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology
University of Birmingham

July 2012
University of Birmingham Research Archive

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Acknowledgements

My thanks go to various people without whom this research would not have been possible:

I would firstly like to thank my supervisor, Dr Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis, who provided
support and guidance and helped me fine-tune my thinking throughout the course of this
project.

My thanks also go to:

Dr Leigh Harkins who provided interim academic support whilst Dr Hamilton-Giachritsis
was on sabbatical;

Steven Gillespie, PhD student and ‘stats advisor extraordinaire’, for helping me with my

statistical analysis;

the Head Teachers of both primary schools for allowing me to carry out research at their
schools;

my sister-in-law, Amanda, who helped pave the way for me to gather data at the

Buckinghamshire site;

all the mothers and female carers who agreed to take part and who gave up their valuable
time to complete my questionnaire;
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my lovely husband, Zeb, who effectively became a single-parent father while I was beavering
away for all those many hours in the local library;

and finally, my three beautiful children, Juna, Lucca, and Sofia, who had to cope with a
mummy who kept disappearing to the local library and to whom I now owe numerous trips to
the park, games of badminton, baking sessions, etc., etc.!
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Abstract

Research has shown that the reaction of the non-offending guardian following disclosure of
child sexual abuse (CSA) is an important factor related to the adjustment of the victim.
However, to date, comparatively little research has examined the characteristics of non-
offending guardians, specifically factors related to their ability to support and protect their
child in the aftermath of disclosure.

The current thesis firstly guides the reader through a systematic review of the existing
literature, specifically a review of primary studies of intervening variables for guardian belief,
support and protection, or various combinations thereof. This review highlights the lack of
consensus within the literature over definition of ‘guardian support’, a situation that has
confounded the drawing of firm conclusions regarding associated factors. Secondly, an
empirical study is presented where this area of research is broadened out to include a general
population of mothers and female carers, and to specifically examine perception of future sex
offending risk through the use of vignettes. It is postulated that risk perception is a mediating
variable between a guardian’s belief in the occurrence of CSA and subsequent support and
protection, a variable that has yet to be examined within the literature as it relates to non-
offending guardians. Results showed that mothers tended to over-estimate risk of re-
offending, although of concern was that, in general terms, younger offenders with male
victims (rated as ‘high risk’ according to a widely-used actuarial measure of sex offender
risk) were regarded to be the least risky. Finally, an existing measure of guardian support is
critically appraised. It is hypothesised that this type of instrument, that only measures a
narrow aspect of a non-offending guardian’s post-disclosure functioning, might be usefully
employed within an overall ‘risk of failure to protect’ assessment framework. Drawing upon
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the current findings, a model upon which to base this type of assessment is outlined in the
discussion.
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Contents

Page

List of tables .................................................................................................. 8

List of figures .................................................................................................. 9
List of appendices ........................................................................................... 10

Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................ 11
Aims of the thesis ......................................................................... 18

Chapter 2: Factors associated with non-abusing guardian support and

protective behaviour in cases of child sexual abuse:

A systematic review ................................................................... 22
- Background ..................................................................... 25
o Existing reviews .................................................. 27
o Current review .................................................... 33
o Review objectives ............................................... 33
o The review question ............................................ 33
- Method ............................................................................ 33
- Results ............................................................................. 41
o Descriptive data synthesis ................................... 41
- Discussion ....................................................................... 70
o Limitations .......................................................... 74
o Conclusions and recommendations .................... 75

Chapter 3: Sex offender risk perception in mothers and female carers of 78

primary school aged children

- Introduction ...................................................................... 80
- Method ............................................................................. 86
- Results .............................................................................. 92
- Discussion ........................................................................ 110
- Conclusion ....................................................................... 120

Chapter 4: Critique of a psychometric measure: The Maternal Self-
report Support Questionnaire (MSSQ) .................................. 122
- Introduction .................................................................... 123
- Scope, purpose and content of the MSSQ ...................... 129
- Psychometric properties ................................................. 131
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- Critique of the MSSQ .................................................... 133
- Conclusion ..................................................................... 138

Chapter 5: Discussion .................................................................................... 141
- Limitations ...................................................................... 151
- Implications for future research ...................................... 152

References ...................................................................................................... 154
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List of Tables

Page

Table 1 Characteristics of quantitative studies examining 43
intervening variables for guardian support

Table 2 Characteristics of qualitative studies examining 54
intervening variables for guardian support

Table 3 Synthesised evidence from included studies of 55
significant intervening variables for guardian
support

Table 4 Accuracy rates for the whole group for each 94
vignette

Table 5 Descriptive statistics relating to the effect of Risk 95
Level, Perpetrator Age, and Victim Gender on
mean risk rating for the whole group

Table 6 Final 14 items on the MSSQ and their factor 130
loadings
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List of Figures

Page

Figure 1 Flow chart of study selection process 38

Figure 2 Mean risk ratings (measured on a ten-point Likert 97
scale) for Low and High risk vignettes according to
Perpetrator Age and Victim Gender

Figure 3 Mean risk ratings (measured on a ten-point Likert 101
scale) for Low and High risk vignettes according to
Perpetrator Age and SES

Figure 4 Model of non-offending guardian support and 149
protection in CSA cases
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