Citation

Koçtürk N, Yüksel F. J. Child Sex. Abus. 2018; 27(7): 852-869.

Affiliation

SB Atatürk Education and Research Hospital , Ankara , Turkey.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10538712.2018.1501787

PMID

30067467

Abstract

School may represent a protective factor, boosting the mental health of the student body, while also representing a risk factor that heightens the potential for mental health problems. The present study aims to identify the individual and familial characteristics associated with the incidents of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Turkey's school environment. The incidents involving school-related CSA constituted 5.6% (N = 125) of 2,238 cases. The following was discovered: an adult committed the majority (64%) of CSA in the school environment; most adult perpetrators were teachers (62.5%). This study determined that the perpetrators manipulated the victims via methods that included physical abuse (11.2%), threats (19.2%), tricks/deception (15.2%), and taking photographs/videos with sexual content (3.2%); and CSA incidents involved intercourse (15.2%); and almost three-quarter of the victims of CSA in the school environment reported the incident late. The findings of the study indicate that peer perpetrators abuse younger victims and male victims more compared to adult perpetrators. This study indicates that peer perpetrators abuse younger victims and a greater proportion of male victims relative to adult perpetrators. In light of these findings, school security must be improved, especially in public schools, and trainings aimed at preventing bullying and sexual abuse (SA) should be given to all school staff, students, and parents.

Language: en

Keywords

Childhood sexual abuse; educator sexual abuse; individual and familial factors; school persons; teacher sexual misconduct