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. 2022 Jun 3:13:788123.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.788123. eCollection 2022.

Disclosing Child Sexual Abuse to a Health Professional: A Metasynthesis

Emilie Manolios  1   2 , Ilan Braoudé  1   3 , Elise Jean  1   3 , Thomas Huppert  3 , Laurence Verneuil  1   4 , Anne Revah-Levy  1   3 , Jordan Sibeoni  1   3
Affiliations

Disclosing Child Sexual Abuse to a Health Professional: A Metasynthesis

Emilie Manolios et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Objective: Sexual abuse is a major public health problem. Its disclosure to a health professional could help to reduce its impact on survivors' lives. The objective of this metasynthesis, combining a systematic review and an analysis of the qualitative studies, was to explore the qualitative literature concerning the experience of a survivor disclosing sexual violence experienced in childhood to a health professional, from the perspective of both.

Methods and data sources: We used four databases and two journals (Medline, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and SSCI, and the Journal of Sexual Abuse and Child Abuse and Neglect) to identify studies concerning this disclosure of sexual abuse to healthcare professionals from the point of view of the survivors and the health professionals. After assessing the methodological quality of the articles with the "Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP)," we conducted a thematic analysis of the data extracted during the review.

Results: This review includes 20 articles, covering the data of 612 participants: 291 who were adults at the time of the study but abused in childhood, 152 minors, 14 parents of adolescents, and 155 healthcare professionals. Two themes emerged from the analysis: (1) the disclosure as experienced by the professionals, and (2) the disclosure as experienced by the survivors.

Conclusion: Our results show that survivors had a diachronic approach to the experience of disclosure. They suggest a change over time in how survivors experience disclosure: relief and release were seen only among the adult participants, at a distance from - long after - the disclosure. This study made it possible to identify new perspectives for research in the field of child psychiatry and to formulate concrete clinical proposals, in particular, by applying the principle of patient experts to involve now-adult survivors in training and increase the awareness of the healthcare professionals concerned.

Keywords: child sexual abuse; disclosure; metasynthesis; qualitative research; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow chart records identified by database searches. The authors used the PRISMA guidelines to conduct their research (55).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Presentation of the results.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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