Peer-reviewed article
Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents Taking Place in Schools: An Integrative Review
Charlene de Oliveira Pereira, Renata Macedo Martins Pimentel, Francisco Naildo Cardoso Leitão, Sandra Dircinha Teixeira de Araújo Moraes, Paula Christianne Gomes Gouveia Souto Maia et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This integrative literature review examines sexual violence against children and adolescents occurring in school settings. The authors systematically reviewed 1,199 studies and selected nine for final analysis to understand the scope and nature of this public health problem. The review identifies the absence of educational programmes on sexual violence as a key risk factor, and recommends that schools implement sexual education and involve families in prevention and identification strategies.
Key points
- Sexual violence against children and adolescents in schools is a worldwide public health problem
- The absence of educational spaces addressing sexual violence is identified as a main factor related to its occurrence
- Sexual education programmes integrated into school routines are proposed as a prevention strategy
- Family participation is recommended as essential for identification and prevention approaches
- Nine studies met the final eligibility criteria after systematic screening from an initial 1,199 studies
Limitations
This is a literature review that synthesises existing research rather than primary data collection, so it cannot establish definitive causal relationships or provide new epidemiological data. The review does not appear to evaluate the effectiveness of specific interventions with quantified outcomes.
Abstract
Sexual violence against children and adolescents is considered a public health problem of worldwide scope. The objective is to analyze the findings in the literature that address the phenomenon of sexual violence against children and adolescents in the school environment; is an integrative literature review that has as its element-problem of interest children and adolescent victims of sexual violence in schools. The research filters used were: the availability of the text (free full text) and publication date (in the last five years); Initially, 1199 studies were identified, then, after application of filters and the removal of duplicated studies, a total of 175 studies was reached. Subsequently, the selection of articles occurred with the sieve of the titles, resulting in 20 studies. From these, 13 proceeded to the eligibility stage, with three being excluded after a full reading. Therefore, nine studies composed the final sample. One of the factors related to the occurrence of sexual violence against children and adolescents in schools is the absence of educational spaces on the subject, being the main parameter for approaching the outline of identification and prevention strategies, with the insertion of sexual education on the school routine, with the participation of the family.