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Child Maltreatment Disclosure to a Text Messaging–Based Crisis Service: Content Analysis

BACKGROUND: Disclosure is a difficult but important process for victims of child maltreatment. There is limited research on child maltreatment disclosure. Young people have been reluctant to disclose victimization to adults, but short message service (SMS) crisis services may represent one novel met...

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Autores principales: Schwab-Reese, Laura, Kanuri, Nitya, Cash, Scottye
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6452289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30907745
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/11306
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author Schwab-Reese, Laura
Kanuri, Nitya
Cash, Scottye
author_facet Schwab-Reese, Laura
Kanuri, Nitya
Cash, Scottye
author_sort Schwab-Reese, Laura
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Disclosure is a difficult but important process for victims of child maltreatment. There is limited research on child maltreatment disclosure. Young people have been reluctant to disclose victimization to adults, but short message service (SMS) crisis services may represent one novel method of engaging young people around sensitive topics. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine characteristics of child maltreatment disclosure to an SMS-based crisis service. METHODS: We conducted a content analysis of all conversations (N=244) that resulted in a mandatory report by an SMS-based crisis service between October 2015 and July 2017. We coded characteristics of the disclosure process, including the reason for initial contact, phrase used to disclose abuse, perpetrator, type of abuse, and length of victimization. After identifying terms used by young people to disclose child abuse, we randomly selected and analyzed 50 conversations using those terms to determine if use of the terms differed between conversations that did and did not result in mandatory report. RESULTS: Parents were the most common perpetrator. Physical abuse was the most common form of abuse discussed in the initial abuse disclosure (106/244, 43.4%), followed by psychological abuse (83/244, 34.0%), sexual abuse (38/244, 15.6%), and neglect (15/244, 6.1%). More than half of the texters discussed abuse or other significant family issues in the first message. An explicit description of the experience or definite language, such as abuse, rape, and molested, was common in disclosures. CONCLUSIONS: Early disclosure, combined with explicit language, may suggest at least a portion of young victims are actively seeking safe ways to talk about their experiences with abuse, rather than incidentally sharing experiences while seeking support for other issues. SMS text messaging may be a valuable way to engage with young people around sensitive topics, but these approaches will require careful consideration in their development, implementation, and evaluation to ensure a positive experience for young people.
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spelling pubmed-64522892019-04-17 Child Maltreatment Disclosure to a Text Messaging–Based Crisis Service: Content Analysis Schwab-Reese, Laura Kanuri, Nitya Cash, Scottye JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Original Paper BACKGROUND: Disclosure is a difficult but important process for victims of child maltreatment. There is limited research on child maltreatment disclosure. Young people have been reluctant to disclose victimization to adults, but short message service (SMS) crisis services may represent one novel method of engaging young people around sensitive topics. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine characteristics of child maltreatment disclosure to an SMS-based crisis service. METHODS: We conducted a content analysis of all conversations (N=244) that resulted in a mandatory report by an SMS-based crisis service between October 2015 and July 2017. We coded characteristics of the disclosure process, including the reason for initial contact, phrase used to disclose abuse, perpetrator, type of abuse, and length of victimization. After identifying terms used by young people to disclose child abuse, we randomly selected and analyzed 50 conversations using those terms to determine if use of the terms differed between conversations that did and did not result in mandatory report. RESULTS: Parents were the most common perpetrator. Physical abuse was the most common form of abuse discussed in the initial abuse disclosure (106/244, 43.4%), followed by psychological abuse (83/244, 34.0%), sexual abuse (38/244, 15.6%), and neglect (15/244, 6.1%). More than half of the texters discussed abuse or other significant family issues in the first message. An explicit description of the experience or definite language, such as abuse, rape, and molested, was common in disclosures. CONCLUSIONS: Early disclosure, combined with explicit language, may suggest at least a portion of young victims are actively seeking safe ways to talk about their experiences with abuse, rather than incidentally sharing experiences while seeking support for other issues. SMS text messaging may be a valuable way to engage with young people around sensitive topics, but these approaches will require careful consideration in their development, implementation, and evaluation to ensure a positive experience for young people. JMIR Publications 2019-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6452289/ /pubmed/30907745 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/11306 Text en ©Laura Schwab-Reese, Nitya Kanuri, Scottye Cash. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 25.03.2019. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mhealth and uhealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Schwab-Reese, Laura
Kanuri, Nitya
Cash, Scottye
Child Maltreatment Disclosure to a Text Messaging–Based Crisis Service: Content Analysis
title Child Maltreatment Disclosure to a Text Messaging–Based Crisis Service: Content Analysis
title_full Child Maltreatment Disclosure to a Text Messaging–Based Crisis Service: Content Analysis
title_fullStr Child Maltreatment Disclosure to a Text Messaging–Based Crisis Service: Content Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Child Maltreatment Disclosure to a Text Messaging–Based Crisis Service: Content Analysis
title_short Child Maltreatment Disclosure to a Text Messaging–Based Crisis Service: Content Analysis
title_sort child maltreatment disclosure to a text messaging–based crisis service: content analysis
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6452289/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30907745
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/11306
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