Clinician stigma and willingness to treat those with sexual interest in children

Abstract

The present study examined North American clinician stigma and willingness to treat those with sexual interest in children. Clinicians (N = 101) were randomly assigned to a vignette describing a referral of a client with a sexual interest in children and asked whether they would accept the client for treatment. Vignettes differed in what the client was seeking treatment for (low mood or managing sexual interest) and sexual offence history (no offence history or a contact offence against a child). Clinicians with lower stigma were more likely to accept a referral for a client with sexual interest in children and, in general, clinicians were least likely to accept a referral for a client with a sexual offence against a child looking to manage their sexual interest. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Outpatient Therapists’ Perspectives on Working With Persons Who Are Sexually Interested in Minors

“…Adding evidence to recent findings from more heterogeneous Anglophone samples of health professionals (Lievesley et al, 2022 ; Roche et al, 2022 ), we were furthermore able to corroborate our hypotheses that psychiatric and psychological mental health professionals’ stigmatizing attitudes toward MAPs and their perceived lack of specific treatment competencies for MAPs are associated with their reduced willingness to treat MAPs (Fig. 2 ).…”

“…1 ). These findings underscore the importance of the pervasively perceived lack of MAP-specific knowledge (Lievesley et al, 2022 ; Roche & Stephens, 2022 ) and treatment skills for dealing with sexual attraction in minors among outpatient routine care mental health professionals.…”

“…Published studies have largely focused on professionals working in specific sexual abuse prevention settings (Beggs Christofferson, 2019;Goodier & Lievesley, 2018;Levenson & Grady, 2019b;Parr & Pearson, 2019) or students about to graduate as social workers or counselors (Walker et al, 2022). Three studies by Lievesley et al (2022), Stephens et al (2021), and Roche and Stephens (2022) that took approaches most similar to that in the present study have focused on varying healthcare practitioner groups, however, consisting of sizeable subsamples of practitioners not (yet) specialized for psychotherapeutic treatment. In Lievesley et al, (2022;N = 220) roughly half of the sample (46%) classified themselves as primary medical healthcare specialists (e.g., physicians), and 19% of the participants in Roche and Stephens (2022;N = 101) were students, social workers (24%), or psychologists or psychotherapists (roughly 50%).…”

“…Three studies by Lievesley et al (2022), Stephens et al (2021), and Roche and Stephens (2022) that took approaches most similar to that in the present study have focused on varying healthcare practitioner groups, however, consisting of sizeable subsamples of practitioners not (yet) specialized for psychotherapeutic treatment. In Lievesley et al, (2022;N = 220) roughly half of the sample (46%) classified themselves as primary medical healthcare specialists (e.g., physicians), and 19% of the participants in Roche and Stephens (2022;N = 101) were students, social workers (24%), or psychologists or psychotherapists (roughly 50%). The hitherto largest mental health clinician sample so far (Stephens et al, 2021; N = 309) consisted of roughly a third of practitioners who identified as social workers or professionals other than registered clinicians, psychologists, or psychiatrists, who made up the remaining sample.…”

“…In terms of therapist competency, only between roughly a quarter and 43% of practitioners answered correctly that pedophilia is a sexual attraction to children below the age of 11 and such general knowledge deficiencies about aspects related to minor attraction were associated with stigmatizing attitudes (Lievesley et al, 2022 ). Therapists’ stigmatization of MAPs, in turn, was negatively related to their willingness to accept MAPs for treatment (Roche & Stephens, 2022 ). Further evidence for considerable reluctance to work with MAPs was reported by Stiels-Glenn ( 2010 ) who found that 95% of psychotherapists they surveyed refused to work with “pedophiles”.…”