Facilitating Children’s Informal Disclosures of Sexual Abuse: The Role of Online Counsellors at a National Children’s Helpline
Date
2022
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse
Abstract
The literature on disclosures of child sexual abuse makes
clear that in the absence of physical indicators of abuse,
children need to articulate their abuse in order to prevent
further harm. However, many struggle to verbalize their
abuse. Previous research has recognized the interactional
nature of disclosures but has focussed only on what the
children say, rather than considering the role of the other
interlocutor. To provide a novel perspective on disclosures,
this research addresses the question ‘To what extent do
counselors facilitate children’s disclosures of sexual abuse?’
Online text-based conversations in which sexual abuse was
disclosed (n = 40) between children (aged 10–18 years old)
and Childline counselors were analyzed. Whilst some children do use explicit terms to describe sexual abuse, these
are predominantly used to seek definitions and clarification.
Furthermore, counselors play an instrumental role in recognizing that a disclosure is being made, and then eliciting and
reframing the disclosure as sexual abuse. The findings offer
an explanation for why some victims of sexual abuse report
having attempted to disclose but feeling like their voices
were not heard.
Description
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Keywords
child sexual abuse, disclosure, International Resources, United Kingdom, counseling, informal, online, childline
Citation
Larner, S. (2022). Facilitating Children’s Informal Disclosures of Sexual Abuse: The Role of Online Counsellors at a National Children’s Helpline. Journal of child sexual abuse, 1-21.