Prevalence of potential sexual abuse in adolescents and young adults and feasibility of an assessment and management plan used in three research projects.
Charlene Morrow, Rachel Thomas, Lili Ding and 1 others
PMID 29464734WHAT IT FOUND
A safety protocol for research participants who reported sex before age 13 was feasible: 95 of 1,541 adolescents and young adults were interviewed and referred to clinicians, with no adverse effects.
Key findings
01Potential sexual abuse was reported by 95 participants (6.2%), with 9.3% of males and 5.1% of females.
02All 95 participants were interviewed by research staff, documentation was complete, assessments were disclosed to primary care clinicians, and no adverse consequences occurred.
03Two participants were referred to social services, 10 were not because the concern had been previously reported, and 83 were not because clinicians determined no further action was warranted.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
All participants were recruited from an urban, predominantly low-income area in Ohio, so the results may not apply to other populations. Potential sexual abuse was defined only as first intercourse before age 13, so other forms of abuse were not counted and the true burden may be higher. Sexual abuse was assessed at one time point only, and self-reported abuse may be less accurate than assessment over several time points. The study could not detect an age difference because there were limited participants in each age group. The protocol was tested in research visits, not as routine clinical care. The paper did not report how many participants with early sexual initiation were ultimately confirmed as abused.
Declared interests
NIH extramural research support is listed; no author conflicts are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 6.2% figure as proof that 6.2% of adolescents are being sexually abused. It was based only on self-reported first intercourse before age 13, and clinicians determined no further action was warranted for 83 of the 95 identified participants.