Emotional responses to child sexual abuse: a comparison between police and social workers in Hong Kong.
OBJECTIVE
Research on specific emotional responses of professionals to child sexual abuse (CSA), other than the overwhelming feeling, is currently lacking in the child welfare literature. This study examines the initial responses to CSA of police and social workers in Hong Kong.


METHODS
Based on their recall of the first child sexual abuse incident, 28 police officers and 86 social workers from 10 training sessions on child sexual abuse in Hong Kong indicated how strong they felt about their emotions in 10 categories of 37 responses.


RESULTS
Among the 37 emotional responses, police and social workers showed significant differences in only seven responses: (1) embarrassment with the perpetrator; (2) ambivalence about rescuing the child or preserving the family; (3) fear of being inadequate in handling the situation; (4) titillation in response to our involuntary physiological responses to words and descriptions of sex acts; (5) feelings of revenge because the behavior was bad or immoral; (6) empathy with the child's condition; and (7) ambivalence about helping or punishing the perpetrator. In both groups, "anger at the perpetrator" and "empathy with the child's condition" were the most strongly felt emotions.


CONCLUSIONS
Although these two professional groups were not significantly different in most of the emotional responses to their first child sexual abuse incidents, police were more likely to have ambivalent and revenge feelings, while social workers were more likely to have discomfort feelings. Limitations of this research project include sampling procedure, self-report biases, and effect of training.
Cheung
M
M
Children & Families Concentration, University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work, TX, USA. mcheung@uh.edu
McNeil Boutte-Queen
N
N
D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011640:Public Policy; D011678:Punishment; D012947:Social Work; D013315:Stress, Psychological