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Parents’ Plans to Communicate About Sexuality and Child Sexual Abuse with Their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

The current study examined intended plans of parents of children (3–18 years) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to communicate with them about sexuality topics including sexual abuse. Participants included 87 parents/guardians who completed an online survey. Results revealed that parents are concerned about the sexual victimization of their children with ASD. While many have spoken to their children about some aspects of sexuality education, most feel ill-equipped to handle such discussions. Characteristics of ASD may make prevention programming difficult, and parents worry about ways to teach their children about sexuality issues. Limitations and implications of the findings are discussed. Recommendations for sexuality education programming, including child sexual abuse prevention, for this population are provided.

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Notes

  1. Missing values in main quantitative variables (e.g., the extent of parents’ worry for their child being sexually abused by an adult; the extent of the effectiveness for parents to discuss 15 topics with their child) were examined by using Little’s MCAR test in SPSS. The result showed that χ2 (679) = 673.17, p = .56, supporting the assumption of missing at random or no systematic pattern of missing data was found.

  2. The degrees of freedom in F values were not integers because the statistical assumption of homogeneity of variance was not supported (p < .05 in Mauchly’s test of sphericity) and Greenhouse–Geisser method was used to adjust the violation of the assumption by using fractional degrees of freedom.

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Correspondence to Maureen C. Kenny.

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Kenny, M.C., Crocco, C. & Long, H. Parents’ Plans to Communicate About Sexuality and Child Sexual Abuse with Their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Sex Disabil 39, 357–375 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-020-09636-1

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