Developing a psychosocial understanding of child sexual abuse disclosure among a group of child and adolescent females in Cape Town, South Africa.
To develop an understanding of the factors that promotes and inhibits child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure and its impact on the child and caregiver. Young girls and adolescents between the ages of 8-17 years who experienced penetrative sexual abuse were recruited from two sexual assault centres in the Western Cape, South Africa. On arrival at the centre, caregivers were approached and informed about the study and informed consent was obtained from those who agreed to participate in the study. This study has shown that factors promoting CSA disclosure include circumstances around the incident, caregiver concerns around the child's behavior, which made caregivers suspicious and allowed them to create an enabling environment to facilitate disclosure for the child as well as coercion by caregivers to talk.
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Department of Public Health and Family Medicine