Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2017-10-10T00:00:00Z
We investigated the year prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) in residential and foster care and compared it with prevalence rates in the general population. We used two approaches to estimate...Show moreWe investigated the year prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) in residential and foster care and compared it with prevalence rates in the general population. We used two approaches to estimate the prevalence of CSA. First, 264 professionals working in residential or foster care (sentinels) reported CSA for the children they worked with (N = 6,281). Second, 329 adolescents staying in residential or foster care reported on their own experiences with CSA. Sentinels and adolescents were randomly selected from 82 Dutch youth care facilities. We found that 4.3 per 1000 children had been victims of CSA based on sentinel reports. In addition, 248 per 1000 adolescents reported having experienced CSA. Results based on both sentinel and self-report revealed higher prevalence rates in youth care than in the general population, with the highest prevalence in residential care. Prevalence rates in foster care did not differ from the general population. We conclude that residential placements should remain a last resort. Unfortunately foster care does not effectively protect children against sexual abuse either, and thus its quality needs to be further improved.Show less
