Abstract #150  -  Community perceptions and understanding of the risk factors that affect children who have been sexually abused
Authors:   Presenting Author:   Miss Alicia Davids - Human Sciences Research Council
Additional Authors:  Prof Leickness Simbayi, Ms Nolusindiso Ncitakalo, Ms Vuyelwa Mehlomakhulu,
Aim: The aim of this paper is to provide in-depth accounts of community perceptions with regard to their understanding of child sexual abuse, indentifying who the possible perpetrators are and what the consequence of child sexual abuse holds for children that have been abused.
Method / Issue: The findings reported was part of a national study whereby 51 focus group discussions were conducted in all of the 9 provinces in South Africa. The findings reported in this paper focus specifically on what arose out of the 8 focus groups (109 participants) discussions conducted on the topic of child sexual abuse. Participants included in the study gave informed consent and were assured of anonymity and confidentiality. A qualitative software programme namely Atlas ti was used to manage the data, which was transcribed and translated, and a combination of thematic content analysis and discourse analysis was used to analyse the data.
Results / Comments: Most of the participants stated that child sexual abuse is pervasive in the communities in which they live and that the perpetrators of child sexual abuse are either close family friends or immediate relatives of the children. Risk factors such as HIV infection, sexually transmitted diseases, mental illness/ disturbance, trauma, and pregnancy, were a few of the factors mentioned that some children may suffer as a result of child sexual abuse.
Discussion: It was recommended that in order to adequately address the serious problem of child sexual abuse, interventions need to be developed that would educate and create awareness of child sexual abuse first at the family level then at the community level also incorporating police departments and social welfare sites.
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