Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Dec 2, 2022
Date Accepted: Jun 16, 2023
Online Help-Seeking among Youth Victims of Sexual Violence Before and During COVID-19: Analysis of Hotline Use Trends, 2016-2021
ABSTRACT
Background:
Over two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, understanding pandemic-related trends in child maltreatment, particularly child sexual abuse, remains important for enhancing abuse detection and mental health service provision.
Objective:
To glean insights about the occurrence of child sexual abuse during COVID-19, we examined trends in online help-seeking among youth visiting the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline (NSAOH) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
Methods:
This study used an archival sample of victims who contacted the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline from 2016-2021 (N = 41144). We examined differences in the proportion of youth and adult victims contacting the hotline during the first COVID-19 year (March 2020 to February 2021) compared to the year prior (March 2019 to February 2020; n = 11719). Further, we compared key characteristics of hotline interactions during the first COVID-19 year to the year prior among youth victims (n = 5913). Using joinpoint regression analysis, we examined linear trends in the number of monthly NSAOH interactions with youth and adult victims (excluding victims of unknown age) from 2016-2021 among those discussing any victimization event (n = 26904) and those discussing recent events that occurred during the pandemic (n = 9403).
Results:
The number of youth victims contacting NSAOH spiked in March 2020 and peaked in November 2020 both for all youth (Slope = 28.2, 95% CI = 18.7, 37.7) and those discussing recent events that occurred during the pandemic (Slope = 17.4, 95% CI = 11.3, 23.5). We observed a decline in youth victims into spring 2021 among all youth (Slope = 56.9, 95% CI = -91.4, -22.3) and those discussing recent events (Slope = -33.7, 95% CI = 47.0, -20.3). Most youth victims were abused by family members, prior to (60.4%) and after (72.6%) the onset of COVID-19.
Conclusions:
We observed increased youth help-seeking on NSAOH coinciding with the onset of COVID-19. This study extends the use of hotline data to understand implications of the pandemic and demonstrates the acceptability of online support for child sexual abuse victims. Findings support calls for increased youth mental health services and efforts to incorporate online chat as a modality to help youth.
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