NCJ Number
166811
Journal
Child Maltreatment Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1997) Pages: 46-51
Date Published
1997
Length
6 pages
Annotation
To better understand possible stigmatizing effects of child sexual abuse, 60 teachers were asked to make multiple judgments about the behavior of a child described with one of four labels: neutral, dissimilar, experienced a nonsexual trauma, and experienced a sexual trauma.
Abstract
Teachers expected a child labeled as sexually abused to experience more stress than a child labeled as neutral or dissimilar but not more stress than a child labeled as having experienced nonsexual trauma. Of 100 questionnaires distributed to elementary school teachers at five public rural and suburban schools in the midwest, 60 teachers responded. Teacher attributions concerning causality, stability, and controllability were assessed. The study also focused on teacher reports of the amount of time they would devote to encouraging children's efforts, tendencies to affiliate with children, expectations of future positive and negative behavior, and expectations of current and psychological functioning. Although findings suggested teachers had different expectations for sexually abused children, the results provided no evidence of stigmatization. The sexual abuse label was not related to teacher expectations of less positive behavior in the future and did not cause teachers to be less likely to urge children to persist in an academic task. The authors suggest further research to assess the link between sexual abuse and academic and psychological problems and the extent to which teacher knowledge of the sexual abuse status of students mediates this link. 14 references and 1 table