- Title
- The demographic and symptom characteristics of Australian under-10-year-olds with problematic or harmful sexual behaviours (PHSB) who have not disclosed child sexual abuse
- Creator
- Insley-Blaszk, Annie
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2023
- Description
- Masters Coursework - Master of Clinical Psychology (MClinPsych)
- Description
- Internationally, several demographic factors have been found to be more frequently associated with children experiencing problematic or harmful sexual behaviour (PHSB). These include being male, experiencing child abuse, being diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), living in out of home care (OOHC) and being of low socioeconomic status (SES). This study sought to explore the demographic and symptom profile of the largest Australian sample of under-10-year-old children receiving community treatment for PHSB to date. It was the only sample of children with PHSB where children with disclosed child sexual abuse had been filtered out. Retrospective demographic (n = 392) and questionnaire (n = 23 to 38) data from referrals between 2013 and 2023 were analysed. Participants were aged 2 to 9.9 years old (M = 6.76, SD = 1.77), the majority were male (63.74%), almost one third were previously or concurrently in OOHC (29.08%), and from a range of SES backgrounds. Females scored higher than males on symptoms of PTSD. PHSB was positively correlated with PTSD symptoms. Problematic sexual behaviour was associated with anger, caregiver-child relational distress, being female, and younger age. Harmful sexual behaviour was associated with worries regarding sex, depression, and increasing remoteness. These findings indicate possibly distinct pathways between problematic sexual behaviours and harmful sexual behaviour. The demographic and symptom profile of this sample were consistent with the results of previous international studies, suggesting that PHSB presents similarly across cultures. The result pertaining to SES was unexpected, likely due to an inaccurate measure of SES.
- Subject
- problematic or harmful sexual behaviours (PHSB); children; characteristics; Australian
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1493804
- Identifier
- uon:53649
- Rights
- Copyright 2023 Annie Insley-Blaszk
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 240 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |