Abstract

The present study examined how adults living in the United States perceive children’s developmentally-appropriate and problematic sexual behaviors before and after receiving psychoeducation on these topics. The purpose of the present study was to inform future psychoeducational programming. The present study specifically focused on whether male and female adult participants experienced biases regarding children’s sexual behaviors based on their own genders, children’s genders, and their own histories of adverse sexual experiences during childhood (ASECs). Participants from a national sample were presented with 8 vignettes describing situations in which male children (4 vignettes) and female children (4 vignettes) engaged in developmentally-appropriate childhood sexual behaviors (CSBs) and problematic sexual behaviors (PSBs). Participants were then asked to rate how likely they were to recommend that the children’s families seek services for CSBs and PSBs, before and after receiving psychoeducation. Results showed that the likelihood of female participants and participants with histories of ASECs recommending that families seek services significantly differed (p < .05) from male participants and participants without histories of ASECs—both overall and contextually. Additional research is warranted on how to effectively disseminate information about CSBs and PSBs to adult females as well as with histories of ASECs.

摘要

本研究调查了生活在美国的成年人在接受有关这些主题的心理教育之前和之后如何看待儿童的发育适当和有问题的性行为。本研究的目的是为未来的心理教育规划提供信息。本研究特别关注男性和女性成年参与者是否因自己的性别、儿童的性别以及他们自己的童年不良性经历 (ASEC) 历史而对儿童的性行为产生偏见。来自全国样本的参与者收到了 8 个小插曲，描述了男孩（4 个小插曲）和女童（4 个小插曲）从事适合发育的儿童性行为 (CSB) 和有问题的性行为 (PSB) 的情况。然后，参与者被要求评估他们在接受心理教育之前和之后向儿童家庭寻求 CSB 和 PSB 服务的可能性有多大。结果表明，女性参与者和有 ASECs 历史的参与者建议家庭寻求服务的可能性存在显着差异（p < .05) 来自男性参与者和没有 ASECs 历史的参与者 - 无论是整体还是上下文。需要进一步研究如何有效地向成年女性传播有关 CSB 和 PSB 的信息以及 ASEC 的历史。