African American Attitudes Toward Incest and Child Sexual Abuse

African American Attitudes Toward Incest and Child Sexual Abuse

African Americans (N = 244) were surveyed to explore the influence of blame attribution, racial identity, religious faith maturity, and demographic characteristics on attitudes excusing sexual exploitation of children. Ninety-three percent of African Americans were non-excusing of sex between an adult and a child with Victim and Offender blame correlating significantly with low scores on the ATSA. Multiple regression analyses revealed: Racial Identity significantly predicted ATSA; Age and Gender predicted Situational Blame; Gender, Age, Vertical Faith and Collective Identity predicted Victim Blame; Gender and Value for Institutions predicted Societal Blame; and Gender predicted Offender Blame. Results support the relationship between multidimensional factors and African American attitudes toward incest and child sexual abuse.

Religious studies, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health(social science)

Incest, Child sexual abuse, African Americans and abuse