Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jun 15, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 16, 2018 - Aug 11, 2018
Date Accepted: Dec 9, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Disclosure of child maltreatment to a text messaging-based crisis service
ABSTRACT
Background:
Disclosure is a difficult but important process for victims of child maltreatment. There is limited research on child maltreatment disclosure, but 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 Crisis Text Line (CTL), a SMS-based crisis service.
Methods:
We conducted a content analysis of all conversations (n = 244) that resulted in a mandatory report by CTL 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 (n = 106), followed by psychological abuse (n = 83), sexual abuse (n = 38), and neglect (n = 15). More than half of texters discussed abuse or other significant family issues in the first message. “Abuseâ€, other definite language (e.g., rape, molested), or an explicit description of the experience 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, rather than incidentally sharing experiences while seeking support for other issues. SMS 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.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.