Peer-reviewed article
Negative reactions of Uganda’s parents towards the disclosure of child sexual abuse and perceived psychosocial consequences on survivors
Florence Turyomurugyendo, Janestic Mwende Twikirize, Eddy Walakira, Cecilie Revheim ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how parents in Uganda reacted when children disclosed sexual abuse to them, and how survivors experienced these reactions. Researchers interviewed 14 survivors and community members and found that parents often responded negatively, including verbal abuse, forcing children to keep secrets, sending them away, or denying them education. Survivors reported that these parental reactions led to anger, feelings of rejection, and loss of self-esteem. The researchers suggest that social workers need to help families understand how to respond supportively to disclosure.
Key points
- Survivors reported parents verbally abused them after disclosure of sexual abuse
- Parents sent children away from home or forced them to keep the abuse secret
- Some parents denied children education after learning about the abuse
- Negative parental reactions were associated with survivors' accumulation of anger, rejection, and loss of self-esteem
- Parents' negative reactions were influenced by their own pain, frustration, and disappointment about the child's abuse
Limitations
This study describes survivors' perceptions of parental reactions rather than documenting actual parental behaviour, and uses a small purposive sample of 14 participants from Uganda, which limits generalisability. The qualitative design cannot establish causation between parental reactions and psychosocial outcomes.
Abstract
Disclosure of child sexual abuse is the first step toward receiving social and systemic support. While parents are important recipients of disclosure, there is limited evidence regarding their reactions and how survivors perceive them. This study describes parents’ reactions that survivors consider as negative and the psychosocial consequences associated. A case study utilizing qualitative research methods was adopted. Narrative inquiry was used to collect data from 14 purposively-selected participants. Six in-depth interviews were held with key informants and 2 focus group discussions with community members. Data was analysed using themes and quotes. Survivors reported that their parents verbally abused them, sent them away from home, forced them to keep the abuse a secret, and denied them education after learning about the abuse. Participants associated the reactions with accumulation of anger, feelings of rejection and loss of self-esteem. Parents' reactions are influenced by a complex web of factors including the struggle to manage their pain, frustration and disappointment as a result of their child’s abuse. In this regard, service providers particularly social workers ought to provide knowledge to young people on where to seek professional help and engage in awareness creation at the family and community level to support parents to provide constructive support to children exposed to abuse.