Knowledge of Adult Sexual Orientation Influences Perceptions of Adult-Child Interactions.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a highly prevalent concern that carries lifelong consequences for the survivor. Many instances of CSA may be prevented when people correctly recognize precursory behaviors to abuse; however, research has shown that people's biases color their perceptions of behavior. Past research demonstrated sexual and gender minority adults are more likely to erroneously be seen as predators and face harsher consequences compared to straight adults. The current study examined how knowledge of adults' sexual orientation influenced perceptions regarding the nature of adult-child interactions. Participants in the current study read a series of vignettes describing interactions between adults and children where the adult sexual orientation (straight male, gay male) and the gender of the child (male, female) were manipulated. Participants then indicated whether they believed the behavior to be predatory or innocuous. Participants were less likely to recognize dangerous behaviors when the adult was described as a straight man interacting with a male child, suggesting that harmful adult-child interactions are more likely to go undetected in these instances.

Detecting Grooming Behaviors in Same-Sex versus Opposite-Sex Child Sexual Abuse.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a prevalent concern that often leads to severe, life-long consequences. Grooming is an early indicator of CSA, and it is imperative to be able to recognize these behaviors in adult-child relationships to prevent abuse from occurring. Research on CSA and grooming has primarily focused on opposite-sex (male adult and female child) abuse while little research has focused on same-sex (male adult and male child) abuse. The current study examined how the sex of the adult-child pair might impact the identification of grooming behaviors. Participants in this study were presented with a series of vignettes depicting grooming and non-grooming behaviors in either same-sex or opposite-sex adult-child pairs. Participants were more likely to label the behaviors presented as grooming when shown situations involving an opposite-sex adult-child pair as opposed to a same-sex adult-child pair.

Retrospective Perceptions of Grooming in Same-Sex versus Opposite-Sex Child Sexual Abuse.

Research on child sexual abuse (CSA) has predominantly focused on opposite-sex (e.g., male adult-female child) adult-child pairs, neglecting same-sex (e.g., male adult-male child) adult-child pairs. Grooming behaviors are an early indicator of CSA and while it is important to recognize grooming to prevent abuse, research has shown that detecting these behaviors is a difficult task. Despite this difficulty, people retrospectively overestimate their ability to recognize abuse once it is clear that abuse has occurred. The current study investigated how outcome information (abuse did or did not occur) and the sex of the adult-child pair influenced perceptions of adult-child interactions. Participants evaluated vignettes depicting grooming and non-grooming behaviors in same-sex and opposite-sex adult-child conditions. Participants who were told CSA occurred provided higher likelihood ratings that abuse occurred than participants who were not given information about the abuse. There was some evidence that gender pairings influenced retrospective perceptions of these interactions.