title: Attitudes related to child sexual abuse: scale construction and explorative study among psychologists.
abstract: A Child Sexual Abuse Attitude and Belief Scale was constructed and then answered by 242 child psychologists. Four CSA related attitude and belief subscales were identified through confirmatory factor analysis: (1) The Disclosure subscale reflecting favouring a disclosure at any cost; (2) The Pro-Child subscale reflecting unconditional belief in children's reports; (3) The Intuition subscale reflecting favouring an intuitive approach to CSA investigations; and (4) The Anti Criminal Justice System subscale reflecting negative attitudes towards the legal system. Beliefs that were erroneous according to empirical research were analyzed separately. The results suggest that some psychologists hold extreme attitudes and many erroneous beliefs related to CSA. Some misconceptions are common. Female participants tended to have stronger attitudes than male participants. The more training in interviewing children the participants had had, the more erroneous beliefs and stronger attitudes they had. Experience did not affect attitudes and beliefs.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland. katarina.finnila-tuohimaa@hus.fi
authors: Katarina
authors: K
authors: Finnilä-Tuohimaa
authors: Pekka
authors: P
authors: Santtila
authors: Linda
authors: L
authors: Björnberg
authors: Niina
authors: N
authors: Hakala
authors: Pekka
authors: P
authors: Niemi
authors: Kenneth
authors: K
authors: Sandnabba
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011584:Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires