Biomaterial Database

Sexually abused and nonabused children's conceptions of personal body safety. 1990

C L Miller-Perrin, and S K Wurtele, and P A Kondrick

Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-4830.

This study compared characteristics of abused and nonabused children's conceptions about personal body safety. A projective type vignette describing a personal body safety violation was read to 25 abused children entering a treatment program in eastern Washington and 25 nonabused children matched on sex, age, and grade in school. The children were asked questions about the vignette incident, and responses were compared between the abused and nonabused children. Significant differences were obtained between abused and nonabused children's conceptions of personal body safety with regard to their definitions of sexual abuse, descriptions of violators, and perceptions of consequences for the violator. Few significant differences were observed regarding conceptions of the victim, and no differences were observed on responses to two control vignettes depicting violations of traffic and school safety rules. Comparisons are made between both abused and nonabused children's understandings of the phenomenon. In addition, suggestions are offered for incorporating this information into sexual abuse prevention and treatment programs as well as future research.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D011386	Projective Techniques	Techniques to reveal personality attributes by responses to relatively unstructured or ambiguous stimuli.	Picture Frustration Study,Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study,Szondi Test,Projective Technics,Psychodynamic Assessment,Psychosomatic Assessment,Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study,Assessment, Psychodynamic,Assessment, Psychosomatic,Assessments, Psychodynamic,Assessments, Psychosomatic,Frustration Study, Picture,Projective Technic,Projective Technique,Psychodynamic Assessments,Psychosomatic Assessments,Study, Picture Frustration,Study, Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration,Technic, Projective,Technics, Projective,Technique, Projective,Techniques, Projective,Test, Szondi
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D002650	Child Abuse, Sexual	Sexual maltreatment of the child or minor.	Child Molestation,Child Molestation, Sexual,Molestation, Sexual, Child,Sexual Abuse of Child,Sexual Abuse, Child,Abuse, Child Sexual,Child Sexual Abuse,Molestation, Child,Sexual Child Abuse,Sexual Child Molestation
D002666	Psychology, Child	Branch of psychology involving the study of normal and abnormal behavior of children.	Child Psychology,Infant Psychology,Pediatric Psychology,Psychology, Infant,Psychology, Pediatric
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001290	Attitude	An enduring, learned predisposition to behave in a consistent way toward a given class of objects, or a persistent mental and/or neural state of readiness to react to a certain class of objects, not as they are but as they are conceived to be.	Sentiment,Attitudes,Opinions,Opinion,Sentiments
D012742	Sex Offenses	Any violation of established legal or moral codes in respect to sexual behavior.	Sexual Assault,Sexual Abuse,Sexual Violence,Abuse, Sexual,Abuses, Sexual,Assault, Sexual,Assaults, Sexual,Offense, Sex,Offenses, Sex,Sex Offense,Sexual Abuses,Sexual Assaults,Sexual Violences,Violence, Sexual,Violences, Sexual