"You can tell me anything" : the role of caregivers in obtaining and maintaining support for children after receiving a disclosure of physical or sexual abuse
department or school: Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Psychology, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Biener, Cassidy
issued: 2023-12-21T19:12:18Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Child abuse is a severely underreported crime (7 – 15%; General Social Survey, 2019; Winters et al., 2020). Reporting is crucial to seeking and obtaining formal support for those impacted. Before a report can be made, the abuse must be discovered through the presence of evidence or disclosure. Study 1 focused on exploring differences in disclosure and related factors between child sexual abuse (CSA) and child physical abuse (CPA). Study 2 investigated the responses of prominent disclosure recipients. Through the analysis of n = 466 RCMP files, Study 1 revealed significant differences in CSA and CPA along disclosure-relevant dimensions (e.g., child’s age, gender, severity and frequency of abuse, and relation to perpetrator (p < .001)). Disclosures were more crucial to the discovery of CSA but were delayed longer than CPA. Non-offending caregivers were the largest group of disclosure recipients. Study 2 utilized a subset of data from Study 1 n = 258, those where non-offending caregivers were aware of the abuse and able to respond. The MDS configurations were different across abuse types. Non-offending caregivers generally responded to disclosures with support. However, only 54% of caregivers reported it. Abuse type was a significant predictor of support, with more blame and less interruption of contact between the perpetrator and child in cases of CPA. Further, being related was a significant predictor of reporting CSA, while frequency of abuse predicted reporting of CPA. Overall, these studies contribute to a deeper understanding of the complexities involved in disclosing and responding to disclosures of abuse.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/86985
note: “You can tell me anything”: The role of caregivers in obtaining and maintaining support for children after receiving a disclosure of physical or sexual abuse by Cassidy Biener M.A., The University of British Columbia Okanagan, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Psychology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) December 2023 © Cassidy Biener 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a dissertation entitled: An examination of child single and multitype maltreatment and their comparative versus combined impact on disclosure: Moving towards a more comprehensive theory of disclosure across abuse types submitted by Cassidy Biener in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy . Dr. Michael Woodworth, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisor Dr. Brian O’Connor, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Jamie Piercy, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Judy Gillespie, Faculty of Health & Social Development University Examiner Dr. Kamala London, University of Toledo External Examiner iii ABSTRACT Child abuse is a severely underreported crime (7 – 15%; General Social Survey, 2019; Winters et al., 2020). Reporting is crucial to seeking and obtaining formal support for those impacted. Before a report can be made, the abuse must be discovered through the presence of evidence or disclosure. Study 1 focused on exploring differences in disclosure and related factors between child sexual abuse (CSA) and child physical abuse (CPA). Study 2 investigated the responses of prominent disclosure recipients. Through the analysis of n = 466 RCMP files, Study 1 revealed significant differences in CSA and CPA along disclosure-relevant dimensions (e.…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-02
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0438321
language: eng
degree discipline: Psychology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Woodworth, Michael T.
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/86985