Citation

Lussier P, Chouinard-Thivierge S, McCuish E, Nadeau D, Lacerte D. Child Abuse Negl. 2018; 88: 37-50.

Affiliation

Centre de Recherche Universitaire sur les Jeunes et les Familles du CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.10.017

PMID

30445335

Abstract

There is scarce research on children and youth with sexual behavior problems (SBP) and their developmental antecedents and the research that does exist is mostly retrospective and correlational. While prior research focused on the central role of sexual victimization, recent research suggests that young persons with SBP are exposed to a series of adversities not limited to child sexual victimization and require multifaceted assessment and intervention using a developmental life course perspective. The current study includes an examination of the complete longitudinal sequence of child protective service (CPS) investigations involving young persons with SBP. The study is based on a sample of 957 youth referred to the CPS in Quebec, Canada. The data include their longitudinal sequence of referrals from birth to age 18. Semi-parametric analyses identified four trajectories of referrals with significant differences in terms of onset, frequency, types of life adversity, and polyvictimization. The trajectories suggest that a range of developmental profiles characterize young persons with SBP, with SBP often occurring after CPS contacts for compromising issues other than sexual victimization, especially parental neglect and serious behavior problems. Of importance, polyvictimization was relatively common for this group throughout childhood and adolescence, which highlights the multiintervention needs of this population.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Child protective service; Child sexual abuse; Juvenile sex offending; Longitudinal study; Polyvictimization; Sexual abuse; Sexual behavior problems; Sexual victimization