Social problem solving in unsafe situations: Implications for sexual abuse education programs

Examined the impact of two subject variables (age and gender) and two contextual factors (antagonist age and nature of the social dilemma) on children's social problem solving (SPS). Preschoolers (N=62) were individually presented with four stories that varied the antagonist age (peer vs. adult...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of community psychology Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 399 - 414
Main Authors Grober, Jacqueline S., Bogat, G. Anne
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers 01.06.1994
Springer
Plenum Press
Blackwell Science Ltd
Subjects
Age Differences
Assertiveness
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child abuse & neglect
Child Abuse, Sexual - prevention & control
Child Abuse, Sexual - psychology
Child psychology
Child Sexual Abuse
Child, Preschool
cognitive problem solving
Female
Gender Identity
Health Education
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Mental health
Peer Group
Preschool Children
preschoolers
prevention
Prevention. Health policy. Planification
Preventive programmes
Problem Solving
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Safety
Sex Differences
sexual abuse
Social Environment
Social problem solving
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Social research
Human
Preschool age
Prevention
Sanitary program
Child abuse
Mental health
Problem solving
Sexual abuse
Educational schedule
Victimology
Child
Social cognition
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Summary:Examined the impact of two subject variables (age and gender) and two contextual factors (antagonist age and nature of the social dilemma) on children's social problem solving (SPS). Preschoolers (N=62) were individually presented with four stories that varied the antagonist age (peer vs. adult) and social dilemma (nonsexual vs. sexual). Responses were coded for three SPS variables: number of alternative solutions, solution content, and planfulness. Younger preschoolers were less competent problem solvers in all types of unsafe situations, and, compared to girls, some aspects of boys' problem solving were compromised in sexual encounters. Results also suggest that the nature of the social dilemma, but not the age of the antagonist, affects perschoolers' SPS. Children generated fewer alternative solutions and fewer effective strategies to the sexual encounters compared to the nonsexual dilemmas. Findings are discussed in relation to research on children's SPS and child sexual abuse prevention efforts.
Bibliography:Portions of this paper were presented at the 1991 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA, as well as in M. P. McGrath (Chair), “New Perspectives on Sexual Abuse Education for Preschoolers,” symposium conducted at the 1991 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA. The authors thank Ray Frankmann, Grace Gibson, Karen Kiemel, Belle Liang, Marianne McGrath, and Tim Speth for their help in the preparation of this manuscript.
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ISSN:0091-0562
1573-2770
DOI:10.1007/BF02506872