Cognitions and emotions about child sexual abuse (CECSA): development of a self-report measure to predict bias in child sexual abuse investigations.
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| Title: | Cognitions and emotions about child sexual abuse (CECSA): development of a self-report measure to predict bias in child sexual abuse investigations. |
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| Authors: | Gewehr, Elsa (AUTHOR), Volbert, Renate (AUTHOR), Merschhemke, Marie (AUTHOR), Santtila, Pekka (AUTHOR), Pülschen, Simone (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Psychology, Crime & Law. Jul2026, Vol. 32 Issue 6, p923-943. 21p. |
| Subjects: | Child sexual abuse, Cognition, Questionnaires, Emotions, Hypothesis, Statistical bias, Criminal investigation |
| Abstract: | A biased mindset can foster confirmatory reasoning and suggestive questioning when adults talk to children about abuse suspicions in child-protection, healthcare, educational or investigative settings. We developed a self-report instrument on Cognitions and Emotions about Child Sexual Abuse (CECSA) that may predict individual propensity for a bias toward the abuse hypothesis. Three subscales, 23 items in total, were created in a sample of 801 students of human sciences via exploratory factor analysis and Ant Colony Optimization. The 'Naive Confidence' subscale reflects overestimating one's ability to recognize abused children and overestimating the accuracy of children's abuse reports, the 'Emotional Reactivity' subscale measures the intensity of one's emotional reactions towards the topic of child sexual abuse (CSA), and the 'Justice System Distrust' subscale covers distrusting the justice system's ability to prosecute CSA. The CECSA showed adequate model fit and good internal consistencies. Correlations with other self-report measures demonstrated convergent validity. All subscales predicted biased evaluations towards the abuse hypothesis in scenarios of children displaying unspecific behavioral problems. Given context-specific validations, the CECSA may be used to evaluate training programs or to assess training needs of professionals who talk to children about CSA suspicions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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