Contextual Predictors of Sexual Abuse among Adolescent Girls, Kerala – A School Based Survey

Abstract

Child sexual abuse is not only a frequent and arduous legal problem but also major public health challenges that is rampant both in the developed and developing countries. The likelihood that someone will sexually offend a child, often occurs in the context of a dysfunctional family environment, parental psychopathology, compromising parental alcohol and drug use, witnessing of domestic violence, divorce of biological parents, parental incarceration, parental suicide and low family support. The overall objective of the current study was to identify the predictors of sexual abuse among adolescent girls in Kerala. A Cross-Sectional design was amended for the study using a multistage sampling technique among 1087 adolescent girls belonging to eight and ninth standard. A predesigned, pretested questionnaire prepared by the investigator was administered during the school-based survey to estimate the prevalence and explore the predictors of sexual abuse among adolescent girls. The tool was validated by subject experts and content validity index was 0.9. The prevalence rate was 17.5% and a statistically significant association was found in all the predictor variables like family constellation, paternal psychopathology, maternal support, paternal substance abuse and parental social relation with the occurrence of sexual abuse. On further bivariate analysis with logistic regression only Maternal support (B value: 912; p value <0.002**; OR (Beta): 2.490; CI: 1.408-4.406) and Paternal substance abuse (B value 1.242; p value <0.001**; OR (Beta): 3.461; CI: 2.145-5.583) were found to be the true, strong predictors of sexual abuse among adolescent girls, Kerala. The results conclude that when a number of comorbid risk variables are assessed simultaneously, paternal substance abuse and maternal support were the contextual predictors of childhood sexual abuse.