Gutenberg Open Science: Outpatient therapists’ perspectives on working with persons who are sexually interested in minors

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8324

Full metadata record

DC Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Schmidt, Alexander F.	-
dc.contributor.author	Niehaus, Susanna	-
dc.date.accessioned	2022-12-15T09:48:18Z	-
dc.date.available	2022-12-15T09:48:18Z	-
dc.date.issued	2022	-
dc.identifier.uri	https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8340	-
dc.description.abstract	Minor-attracted persons (MAPs; i.e., people who are sexually interested in children and adolescents below the age threshold of legal consent for sexual activity) exhibit high psychological distress but report difficulties finding therapeutic help and are reluctant to start treatment due to fears of therapist stigmatization. This research sought to elucidate the link between outpatient therapists’ stigmatizing attitudes toward non-offending versus offending MAPs and therapists’ willingness to treat MAPs as well as how stigmatization was related to treatment-relevant aspects such as perceived MAP treatment needs, treatment barriers, and specific MAP treatment skills. Results from a brief, anonymous online survey conducted among N = 427 Swiss outpatient therapists working in the primary healthcare system are reported. Although therapists were less stigmatizing than the general public, considerable individual differences in the stigmatization of non-offending MAPs emerged. Stigmatizing attitudes toward non-offending MAPs and a perceived lack of specific treatment competences were negatively related to therapists’ willingness to treat MAPs. A network analysis revealed direct links between subjectively perceived MAP treatment competence and treatment willingness and between treatment willingness and social distance attitudes. Other stigmatizing attitudes were only indirectly linked to treatment willingness through preferred social distance. It is a paradox that therapists believe that MAPs should greatly benefit from secondary prevention but many are unwilling to provide therapy (45% in case of non-offending MAPs vs. 63% in case of offending MAPs) or do not feel competent to provide MAPs with professional help (47% with and 88% of therapists without previous MAP treatment experience). Implications for increasing therapists’ treatment willingness are discussed.	en_GB
dc.description.sponsorship	Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 491381577	de
dc.language.iso	eng	de
dc.rights	CC BY	*
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	*
dc.subject.ddc	150 Psychologie	de_DE
dc.subject.ddc	150 Psychology	en_GB
dc.title	Outpatient therapists’ perspectives on working with persons who are sexually interested in minors	en_GB
dc.type	Zeitschriftenaufsatz	de
dc.identifier.doi	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8324	-
jgu.type.dinitype	article	en_GB
jgu.type.version	Published version	de
jgu.type.resource	Text	de
jgu.organisation.department	FB 02 Sozialwiss., Medien u. Sport	de
jgu.organisation.number	7910	-
jgu.organisation.name	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz	-
jgu.rights.accessrights	openAccess	-
jgu.journal.title	Archives of sexual behavior	de
jgu.journal.volume	51	de
jgu.pages.start	4157	de
jgu.pages.end	4178	de
jgu.publisher.year	2022	-
jgu.publisher.name	Springer Science + Business Media B.V.	de
jgu.publisher.place	Dordrecht u.a.	de
jgu.publisher.issn	1573-2800	de
jgu.organisation.place	Mainz	-
jgu.subject.ddccode	150	de
jgu.publisher.doi	10.1007/s10508-022-02377-6	de
jgu.organisation.ror	https://ror.org/023b0x485	-
jgu.subject.dfg	Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften	de
Appears in collections:	DFG-491381577-H

Files in This Item:

	File	Description	Size	Format
	outpatient_therapists_perspec-20221117143627622.pdf		1.33 MB	Adobe PDF	View/Open

Show simple item record