Non-offending Guardian Support and Protection in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse: The Role of Risk Perception by Caroline Oliver A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Forensic Psychology Practice (ForenPsyD) Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology University of Birmingham July 2012 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Acknowledgements My thanks go to various people without whom this research would not have been possible: I would firstly like to thank my supervisor, Dr Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis, who provided support and guidance and helped me fine-tune my thinking throughout the course of this project. My thanks also go to: Dr Leigh Harkins who provided interim academic support whilst Dr Hamilton-Giachritsis was on sabbatical; Steven Gillespie, PhD student and ‘stats advisor extraordinaire’, for helping me with my statistical analysis; the Head Teachers of both primary schools for allowing me to carry out research at their schools; my sister-in-law, Amanda, who helped pave the way for me to gather data at the Buckinghamshire site; all the mothers and female carers who agreed to take part and who gave up their valuable time to complete my questionnaire; 2 my lovely husband, Zeb, who effectively became a single-parent father while I was beavering away for all those many hours in the local library; and finally, my three beautiful children, Juna, Lucca, and Sofia, who had to cope with a mummy who kept disappearing to the local library and to whom I now owe numerous trips to the park, games of badminton, baking sessions, etc., etc.! 3 Abstract Research has shown that the reaction of the non-offending guardian following disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA) is an important factor related to the adjustment of the victim. However, to date, comparatively little research has examined the characteristics of non- offending guardians, specifically factors related to their ability to support and protect their child in the aftermath of disclosure. The current thesis firstly guides the reader through a systematic review of the existing literature, specifically a review of primary studies of intervening variables for guardian belief, support and protection, or various combinations thereof. This review highlights the lack of consensus within the literature over definition of ‘guardian support’, a situation that has confounded the drawing of firm conclusions regarding associated factors. Secondly, an empirical study is presented where this area of research is broadened out to include a general population of mothers and female carers, and to specifically examine perception of future sex offending risk through the use of vignettes. It is postulated that risk perception is a mediating variable between a guardian’s belief in the occurrence of CSA and subsequent support and protection, a variable that has yet to be examined within the literature as it relates to non- offending guardians. Results showed that mothers tended to over-estimate risk of re- offending, although of concern was that, in general terms, younger offenders with male victims (rated as ‘high risk’ according to a widely-used actuarial measure of sex offender risk) were regarded to be the least risky. Finally, an existing measure of guardian support is critically appraised. It is hypothesised that this type of instrument, that only measures a narrow aspect of a non-offending guardian’s post-disclosure functioning, might be usefully employed within an overall ‘risk of failure to protect’ assessment framework. Drawing upon 4 the current findings, a model upon which to base this type of assessment is outlined in the discussion. 5 Contents Page List of tables .................................................................................................. 8 List of figures .................................................................................................. 9 List of appendices ........................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................ 11 Aims of the thesis ......................................................................... 18 Chapter 2: Factors associated with non-abusing guardian support and protective behaviour in cases of child sexual abuse: A systematic review ................................................................... 22 - Background ..................................................................... 25 o Existing reviews .................................................. 27 o Current review .................................................... 33 o Review objectives ............................................... 33 o The review question ............................................ 33 - Method ............................................................................ 33 - Results ............................................................................. 41 o Descriptive data synthesis ................................... 41 - Discussion ....................................................................... 70 o Limitations .......................................................... 74 o Conclusions and recommendations .................... 75 Chapter 3: Sex offender risk perception in mothers and female carers of 78 primary school aged children - Introduction ...................................................................... 80 - Method ............................................................................. 86 - Results .............................................................................. 92 - Discussion ........................................................................ 110 - Conclusion ....................................................................... 120 Chapter 4: Critique of a psychometric measure: The Maternal Self- report Support Questionnaire (MSSQ) .................................. 122 - Introduction .................................................................... 123 - Scope, purpose and content of the MSSQ ...................... 129 - Psychometric properties ................................................. 131 6 - Critique of the MSSQ .................................................... 133 - Conclusion ..................................................................... 138 Chapter 5: Discussion .................................................................................... 141 - Limitations ...................................................................... 151 - Implications for future research ...................................... 152 References ...................................................................................................... 154 7 List of Tables Page Table 1 Characteristics of quantitative studies examining 43 intervening variables for guardian support Table 2 Characteristics of qualitative studies examining 54 intervening variables for guardian support Table 3 Synthesised evidence from included studies of 55 significant intervening variables for guardian support Table 4 Accuracy rates for the whole group for each 94 vignette Table 5 Descriptive statistics relating to the effect of Risk 95 Level, Perpetrator Age, and Victim Gender on mean risk rating for the whole group Table 6 Final 14 items on the MSSQ and their factor 130 loadings 8 List of Figures Page Figure 1 Flow chart of study selection process 38 Figure 2 Mean risk ratings (measured on a ten-point Likert 97 scale) for Low and High risk vignettes according to Perpetrator Age and Victim Gender Figure 3 Mean risk ratings (measured on a ten-point Likert 101 scale) for Low and High risk vignettes according to Perpetrator Age and SES Figure 4 Model of non-offending guardian support and 149 protection in CSA cases 9