Clinicians' Attributions of Responsibility for Sexual and Physical Child Abuse

Abstract

Although responsibility attribution is known to influence decisions in clinical practice, factors which influence responsibility attribution for child abuse are not well understood. In the present study, licensed practicing psychologists from two states (n = 328) responded to clinical case vignettes which experimentally manipulated five two-level independent variables. As dependent measures, subjects assigned relative percentages of responsibility for abuse to the father, mother, child/victim, and an older sister. Results indicated that fathers suspected of sexual abuse were held significantly more responsible than those suspected of physical abuse. In addition, adolescent age victims were held significantly more responsible than seven year old victims. All of the sources of responsibility were affected by the child providing a verbal disclosure of abuse to a psychotherapist. Regression analyses also showed that certainty in the occurrence of abuse and responsibility attributed to the child/victim and old...