Professional attitudes and decision making in assessing child sexual abuse

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2022.1.38930

Keywords:

atitudes, occupational self-efficacy, decision making, sexual violence

Abstract

The objective of this work was to characterize the attitudes of professionals working in the welfare system in cases of sexual abuse and to investigate relationships with the levels of occupational self-efficacy, decision making, sociodemographic and labor characteristics. The study included 165 workers, 86% female, with a mean age of 37.6 years (SD = 10.1 years). The network analysis pointed out that the specificity attitude regulates the attitudes of sensitivity and skepticism. Occupational self-efficacy was not related to any variable and decision making showed a negative correlation with the sensitivity attitude. Age showed a negative correlation with the attitude of sensitivity. Professionals who worked in the legal field had higher levels of fear of not identifying abuse compared to health professionals. The results indicate the need to invest in effective training for the adoption of evidence-based practices in order to act in the different sectors of the protection and care network, as well as the importance of supervising cases for proper identification, notification and referrals.

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Author Biographies

Marck de Souza Torres, Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), Manaus, AM, Brasil

Doutor em Psicologia pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), em Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Professor do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia da Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), em Manaus, AM, Brasil.

Clarissa Pinto Pizarro de Freitas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.

Doutora em Psicologia pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), em Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Professora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO), em Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.

Luísa Fernanda Habigzang, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil.

Doutora em Psicologia pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), em Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Professora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), em Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil.

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Published

2022-11-07

How to Cite

Torres, M. de S., Freitas, C. P. P. de, & Habigzang, L. F. (2022). Professional attitudes and decision making in assessing child sexual abuse. Psico, 53(1), e38930. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2022.1.38930