Preliminary Analysis of Teacher-Student Communication about Adolescent Sexual Assault

State of Indiana is one of the highest rates of adolescent sexual assault with low reported cases in USA. With this backdrop, the present study investigates underreporting of adolescent sexual assault, specifically exploring how teacher and student engage in conversation about sexual assault (CSA).

Teachers, coaches, school principal and counselors from 49 schools in Indiana participated in the mail surveys as part of a grant funded project. Based on the population analysis, 520 mail surveys were randomly distributed to 92 counties in Indiana. As a result, 110 survey responses were returned (21.15% of the response rate). A majority of the respondents were White (94.5%), female (70%) with the average age of 41.89 years (range from 22 to 67 years).

33.6% of teachers reported having CSA with adolescents who experienced sexual assault (mean = 5.3, range from one time to 20 times). Of those reporting CSA, 83.8% talked about possible consequences about the sexual assault, 78.4% talked about physical environment where the sexual assault could occur, 73% talked about adolescent relationship with the sexual abuser, 56.8% talked about how to avoid the sexual assault from the first place, and 40.5% talked about different types of sexual assault. When responding to adolescent self-disclosure about sexual assault, teachers used different communication strategies: they tried to comfort the adolescent (76.9%), sympathized with the adolescent (70.3%), provided the adolescent with contact information of medical experts such as psychotherapist or medical doctor for medical assistance (59.5%), shared a story about other people’s experience about the sexual assault (13.5%), and shared their own story of sexual assault (8.1%). 8.1% of teachers reported that adolescent refused to talk about the sexual assault.

In addition, 56.5% of teachers reported having CSA with adolescents who did not have sexual assault (45.4% = occasionally, 10.2% = quite often, .9% = all the time). Of those reporting CSA, 77.8% talked about physical environment where the sexual assault could occur, 71.4% talked about adolescent relationship with the sexual abuser, 71.4% talked about how to avoid the sexual assault from the first place, 61.9% talked about possible consequences about the sexual assault, and 44.4% talked about different types of sexual assault. 3.2% of teachers reported that adolescent refused to talk about the sexual assault.

This research explores CSA with adolescents who experienced sexual assault and those who are not. The formative findings will guide public health practitioners to develop effective communication-based intervention.