Sexual Abuse Myths Held by Student Teachers

Abstract

In an effort to test the prevalence of sexual abuse myths among potential educators, a true/false sexual abuse questionnaire consisting of 60 myths was completed by 191 students in their first or second year of the Bachelor of Education program at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Only five out of the 60 myths (8%) were consistently recognized as false statements by all the students. Furthermore, only 12 students (6%) recognized all the statements were gross overgeneralizations. Those items to which 10 or more per cent of the students responded as true are discussed and some possible reasons for the tenacity of these particular myths are explored. Moskal advocates that student and practicing teachers, administrators, and their school boards are in need of inservice training both on how to recognize the subtle signs of sexual abuse in children and adolescents and to receive the encouragement they need to report it to the proper authorities. Perhaps most importantly, educators cannot even begin to either recognize or report sexual abuse if their own stereotypical myths and biases shroud their perceptions of reality.