Systematic Review Proposal on Child Sexual Abuse: Exploring Underlying Factors and Impacts

This is a research proposal for a systematic review that aims to explore the underlying factors that lead to child sexual abuse and their potential impacts on the child victims. The proposal includes an executive summary, table of contents, introduction, literature review, methodology, and references. The introduction provides background information on child sexual abuse and its various forms, as well as the research problem statement. The methodology section outlines the research philosophy, approach, design, data collection methods, ethical considerations, and time frame for the study.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Systematic review research proposal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
Child sexual abuse has been recognised as a crucial public health concern and often
encompasses a range of societal factors that significantly exacerbates the issues. Although
several research studies have been conducted amid adolescents to unravel their perception of
previously being subjected to sexual abuse in their childhood, not much research have
focused on young age. The ensuing report contains a proposal for conducting a systematic
review that will explore the underlying factors that lead to child molestation and their
potential impacts on the child victims.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................2
1.1 Research background and problem statement-................................................................2
1.2 Research aim....................................................................................................................3
1.3 Research objective...........................................................................................................3
1.4 Research question.............................................................................................................3
2. Literature review....................................................................................................................3
3. Methodology..........................................................................................................................5
3.1 Research philosophy........................................................................................................5
3.2 Research approach...........................................................................................................5
3.3 Research design................................................................................................................5
3.4 Data collection.................................................................................................................6
3.5 Ethical consideration........................................................................................................7
3.5 Time frame.......................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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1. Introduction
Also referred to as child molestation, child sexual abuse refers to a kind of abuse or
maltreatment of children where an older adolescent or adult makes use of a kid for sexual
stimulation. There are different forms of sexual abuse that comprise of being engaged in
sexual deeds with a kid, by pressurising or asking or different means (Mitchell and Galupo
2016). It also comprises of indecent exposure of the genitals, child grooming or child
pornography. Child sexual abuse has also been found to occur in different settings, such as,
school, home, or work (Hempel et al. 2015). The incidents are also common in places where
there is prevalence of child labour. This assignment will focus on a research proposal that
will investigate the underlying factors that result in child abuse, and their potential
psychological impacts on the victims.
1.1 Research background and problem statement-
Sexual abuse can be defined as a form of molestation and forced sexual offense that
causes psychological trauma within the victim. In cases of childhood abuse, the condition
worsens as the victims are naïve and are do not know how to express themselves or seek help.
Further, failure to seek support leads to a lifelong condition of depression, anxiety and PTSD.
According to Barth et al. (2013), it has been mentioned that one in every 10 children are
victims of some form of sexual molestation before the age of 18. Unfortunately, of the total
percentage of children who are victimized, 20% are aged below 8 years of age. As stated by
the website Childtrauma.org, one in every 5 male and one in every 3 female fall victims to
sexual abuse within the Unites States of America before 18 years of age. Also, as reported by
the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress (AAETS), 40% females are molested
and 30% of males are molested within the school premises (American Academy of Experts in
Traumatic Stress 2019). In the words of Kline (2013), the experience of sexual abuse as

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compared to the Freudian’s psychosexual development theory, elicits a feeling of self-guilt
and hurt which gives rise to conflicts within the different stages of sexual development and
affects the psychological wellbeing of the victims.
1.2 Research aim
To determine the causes and consequences of child sexual abuse on victims
1.3 Research objective
 To explore the risk factors for child sexual abuse
 To explore the impacts of child sexual abuse
 To determine the perception of the victims who are exposed to child molestation
1.4 Research question
What are the causes and impact of child sexual abuse on psychological wellbeing?
2. Literature review
According to Barth et al. (2013), children are three times more likely to be assaulted or
molested than mature adult women. Also, studies show that minority abuse forms the largest
number of filed cases against molestation. As mentioned by Pipe et al. (2013), in most of the
cases, the children are either molested by a family member or a teacher or other trustworthy
acquaintance. Studies, further reveal that there are no biases in terms of ethnic,
socioeconomic, religious, educational or religious background of the children experiencing
abuse and the percentage of victimization remains constant irrespective of the social
determinants. According to Finkelhor et al. (2014), the act of sexual abuse has been defined
as the exploitation of a child to experience erotic pleasure both physically as well as mentally.
It should be noted that the act of sexual abuse may or may not essentially include sexual
intercourse. A study conducted by Finkelhor et al. (2014), estimated the possibility of a

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cohort of children being exposed to sexual violence and the findings shockingly revealed that,
26.6% of the children had experienced one episode of abuse by the age of 17 years. Further,
11.2% female children had experienced abuse in the hands of a family member against 1.8%
of the male children.
Another research conducted by Collin Vezina, Daigneault and Hebert (2013), evaluated
the outcome of child sexual abuse on children and compared it with the Traumagenics Model.
The findings of the research study clearly revealed that a child’s emotional and cognitive
orientation is significantly distorted that elicits feeling of self-contempt and guilt. Further, the
research study also clearly explained that there are four kinds of experiences that are
associated with sexual abuse during childhood and it includes, traumatic sexualisation,
feeling of betrayal, feeling of powerlessness and discrimination (Collin-Vezina et al. 2013).
In addition to this, studies have also significantly pointed out that the experience of sexual
abuse during childhood has led to behavioural disturbances and leads to emotional distress
that enhances the probability of developing mental health problems with the progression of
age such as Post traumatic stress and depression and psychotic experiences such as
hallucinations and delusions. Further, it has also been found that the traumatic experience can
cause complications with psychosexual functioning.
Research gap- On critically evaluating the available research study evidences, it can be
said that most of the research studies have considered adolescent teenagers as participants.
Also, typically most of the research studies have only focused on the traumatic experience
witnessed by the female adolescents (Pipe et al., 2013; Collin-Vezina et al. 2013). Therefore
a gap in terms of conducting a research study on children aged below 13 and concentrating on
male children can be identified. Therefore, this research study would essentially focus on the
participants who are aged below 13 years and would focus on the male children and try to
evaluate the causes and the impact of sexual violence on the wellbeing of the subjects.

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3. Methodology
3.1 Research philosophy
The research will be based on the philosophy of realism that depends on the notion of
independence of the actuality from the human mind. This philosophy will be grounded on the
assumption of a precise scientific approach for development of knowledge (Bhaskar 2016).
Therefore, this research philosophy is in contrast to idealism, and will underpin the process of
data collection and its understanding.
3.2 Research approach
The methodology section of a research proposal provides an overall plan of the major
research objectives that are intended to be accomplished. The research will be based on a
qualitative design that is principally exploratory in its nature. This kind of research will
provide a sound understanding of the opinions, motivations, and reasons that are associated
with the phenomenon under investigation (child sexual abuse). It will also help in the
formulation of an idea or hypothesis for conducting future research (Silverman 2016). The
primary benefit of conducting a qualitative research over a quantitative one is that it will
focus less on data metrics and facilitate unravelling the subtleties of information. Conduction
of a qualitative research will also provide the opportunity of gathering essential cues about
the reasons and effects of child sexual abuse (Lewis 2015). Another major advantage can be
associated with the fact that it will help in formulating a detailed picture about why the
victims acts in definite ways and their emotional state about child sexual abuse.
3.3 Research design
Three electronic databases namely, PsychInfo, CINAHL, and PubMed will be selected for
extraction of the articles. The research question will be categorised into specific search terms
such as, child, sexual abuse, maltreatment, molestation, reasons, factors, causes, effect,

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impact, psychological, behaviour. These terms will be combined with the use of boolean
operators AND, OR and NOT, which in turn will allow broadening or narrowing down the
search results (McGowan et al. 2016). Following retrieval of some articles from the
databases, the procedure of snowball sampling will be followed, whereby relevant articles
will be extracted from the bibliography of the already retrieved pieces of scholarly literature.
3.4 Data collection
The criteria based on which articles will be selected from the aforementioned databases is
given below:
 Articles published in English
 Articles published on or after 2014
 Articles that focus on the potential causes and impacts of child sexual maltreatment
Scholarly literature that are published in foreign language, prior to 2014, and which focus
on other forms of abuse such as, physical or mental will not be selected for the purpose.
Unpublished articles, abstracts and manuscripts will also be excluded. Data extraction will
follow a relatively linear procedure and will encompass utilisation of the PRISMA statement.
According to Stewart et al. (2015) considered as an evidence-based minimum set of objects
that help in reporting systematic reviews. After initial evaluation of the article title and their
abstracts, their full-text eligibility will be assessed in order to determine their relevance to the
research question.
Analysis of the data will be carried out in the form of thematic analysis that will examine,
pinpoint and record specific patterns or themes, within the data presented in the included
articles. These themes will prove beneficial in providing an explanation of the phenomenon
(child abuse causes and consequences). After familiarising with the results of the extracted
articles, preliminary codes will be identified from statements that appear significant or

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meaningful to the research question (Braun, Clarke and Terry 2014). Relevant data extracts
will then be split or sorted into overarching themes and subthemes in a manner that allows all
information to cohere together. The thematic analysis will then be transformed into
interpretable section of script by using intense and convincing extract instances that narrate to
the research question, themes, and literature. The result sections will relay the findings of the
analysis in a manner that persuades the readers of the validity and merit of the review.
It is expected that after conducting a comprehensive and all-inclusive systematic review,
the results will be able to shed light on the major factors that are responsible for the
manifestation of certain behaviour, which in turn lead to child sexual abuse. The findings are
also expected to provide elaborate details on the physical and psychological impacts of child
molestation on the victims, thus adding information to already existing research evidences.
The review will also illustrate the types of sexual exploitation that children are exposed to,
besides elaborating on the factors that make the offender engage in such heinous activities.
Owing to the fact that the causal factors of sexual abuse among children are not conclusively
known, the review will add valuable information to this domain of social research.
Disseminating the findings of the review through publications, conferences and podcasts will
also increase awareness among the general public regarding sexual abuse of kids, thereby
facilitating the easy identification of the early signs and symptoms. This in turn will prevent
further harm by the perpetrators and safeguard the victims.
3.5 Ethical consideration
Avoiding plagiarism while reporting the results from scholarly evidences that have
been incorporated in the review, is one major ethical consideration. Maintaining transparency
while presenting findings from the articles is another consideration. All works included in the
review must be adequately cited to the original authors. Furthermore, there is a need to
provide adequate information about the competing interests of the reviewers and funding of

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the study. Thus, it can be concluded that child sexual abuse is a kind of child maltreatment
where a kid is generally subjected to abuse for the sexual gratification of another person,
usually an adult. Taking into consideration the fact that most research studies have taken into
account child abuse experiences of adolescents and primarily focus on female victims, this
systematic review will explore the major causal factors that result in child abuse, and their
potential consequences on children.
3.5 Time frame
The research will be conducted over a period of 10 months. Below given is the timeline for
all events encompassed in the research.
Stages Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Selecting a
topic
Ethical
approval
Background
study
Defining
research aims
and objectives
Data
collection and
extraction
Data anaylsis
Drawing
conclusions

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Writing a
report
Disseminatio
n of findings
Table 1- Gantt chart for the research proposal

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References
American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress 2019. American Academy of Experts in
Traumatic Stress. [online] American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. Available at:
http://www.aaets.org/index.htm [Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].
Barth, J., Bermetz, L., Heim, E., Trelle, S. and Tonia, T., 2013. The current prevalence of
child sexual abuse worldwide: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International journal
of public health, 58(3), pp.469-483.
Bhaskar, R., 2016. Enlightened common sense: The philosophy of critical realism. Routledge.
Braun, V., Clarke, V. and Terry, G., 2014. Thematic analysis. Qual Res Clin Health
Psychol, 24, pp.95-114.
Collin-Vézina, D., Daigneault, I. and Hébert, M., 2013. Lessons learned from child sexual
abuse research: Prevalence, outcomes, and preventive strategies. Child and adolescent
psychiatry and mental health, 7(1), p.22.
Finkelhor, D., Shattuck, A., Turner, H.A. and Hamby, S.L., 2014. The lifetime prevalence of
child sexual abuse and sexual assault assessed in late adolescence. Journal of Adolescent
Health, 55(3), pp.329-333.
Hempel, I.S., Buck, N.M.L., Van Vugt, E.S. and van Marle, H.J.C., 2015. Interpreting child
sexual abuse: Empathy and offense-supportive cognitions among child sex offenders. Journal
of child sexual abuse, 24(4), pp.354-368.
Jackson, L.A., 2013. Child sexual abuse in Victorian England. Routledge.pp.91
Kline, P., 2013. Fact and Fantasy in Freudian Theory (RLE: Freud). Routledge.pp.87

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Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five
approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.
McGowan, J., Sampson, M., Salzwedel, D.M., Cogo, E., Foerster, V. and Lefebvre, C., 2016.
PRESS peer review of electronic search strategies: 2015 guideline statement. Journal of
clinical epidemiology, 75, pp.40-46.
Mitchell, R.C. and Galupo, M.P., 2016. Interest in child molestation among a community
sample of men sexually attracted to children. Journal of sexual aggression, 22(2), pp.224-
232.
Pipe, M.E., Lamb, M.E., Orbach, Y. and Cederborg, A.C. eds., 2013. Child sexual abuse:
Disclosure, delay, and denial. Psychology Press.
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
Stewart, L.A., Clarke, M., Rovers, M., Riley, R.D., Simmonds, M., Stewart, G. and Tierney,
J.F., 2015. Preferred reporting items for a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual
participant data: the PRISMA-IPD statement. Jama, 313(16), pp.1657-1665.