Mental health articles

Ecological Influences of child sexual abuse Risk of sexual abuse can be conceptualized as a result of various external influences that are experienced by children internally as potentiating or protective factors. In other words, children are at risk of sexual abuse because of factors that occur outside the child (i.e,, at the level of the macrosystem, exosystem, and microsystem). Although level of causation is external to the child, however, these causative factors, via systemic dynamics, manifest at the level of the child. Thus, they act at the level of the child as potentiating or protective factors. Figure 8-1 elaborates this process. As can be seen, stressors at each hierarchical level impact all lesser levels. The macrosystem, for example, impacts the exosystem (community) and microsystem (family) both directly and indirectly. The macrosystem, exosystem, and microsystem all influence the ontogenic (child) system level, again both directly and indirectly. This model thus suggests that risk at the level of the child is influenced by all levels of the system. An important purpose of the ecological and transactional model of child sexual abuse is to clarify levels at which risk factors originate. Historically, literature has focused most heavily on the level of the child (ontogenic) and secondarily on the family (microsystem). For example, historical conceptualizations of family systems theory sometimes blamed the child for initiating father-daughter incest because of the power the child gained (Kadushin & Martin, 1988). Yet, the issue of power is better explained at the level of the macrosystem. In this conceptualization, because of societal norms, fathers have the majority of power within the family which they may then choose to abuse by targeting their children for abuse. Power originates, then, at the macrosystem (society) but is manifested at the microsystem (family). Because of this confusion between the level at which risk factors originate and then later manifest, the literature has historically focused upon the lower levels of the systemic level influences, specifically the level of the child or family, for dynamics leading to the abuse. Yet, strong cultural influences impinge upon the child and family. Many risk factors, while historically conceptualized as ontogenic or microsystem risk factors, are probably better conceptualized as macrosystem or exosystem influences. A theory proposed by Reiss (1981) has important implications for this conceptualization. Reiss suggested that families develop paradigms that represent a set of beliefs and assumptions about their environment and that these paradigms affect how families process information about their environment. Cicchetti and Lynch (1993) expanded this conceptualization by suggesting that these family paradigms are actually the “family’s representational model of the community in which they reside” (p. 113). These representational models, by shaping the family’s viewpoints and expectations, then become mechanisms for the perpetuation of violence within communities. This theory provides an impetus for understanding how factors that manifest at one level are better conceptualized as originating at a higher hierarchical level. Both the family and community may internalize a representational model of the cultural beliefs and values of the greater society. This representational model appears to be mostly stable, but also dynamic, changing slowly over time as the social climate changes. Because it develops as a result of the transaction among the family or community and the greater society, it is a dyadic property, reflecting the confluence between the family or community and the greater society. Through the inculcation of cultural beliefs and values via the family and its members, children may manifest risk factors that are better conceptualized as societal in origin. The importance of the greater society when conceptualizing the problem of child sexual abuse is also suggested by the fact that it is pervasive within the fabric of society. The chapter on incidence and prevalence of sexual abuse suggested that approximately 30% to 40% of female children and 13% or more of male children are sexually abused (Bolen & Scannapieco, 1999). Because of the pervasiveness of the problem of child sexual abuse, no model that focuses solely on deficits in children and families to explain it will suffice. Adequate explanations of child sexual abuse must begin at the level of the macrosystem and exosystem. While these levels will not explain all factors that place children at risk of sexual abuse, it is suggested that these two levels will explain the majority.

Tags: child, sexual abuse