Parents’ perspectives on the parent–child relationship following their child’s engagement in harmful sexual behaviour

ABSTRACT

The importance of the involvement of parents in treatment approaches for children and young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) has been consistently highlighted within the literature. Despite this, very little is known about their lived experiences of their relationship with their child following HSB and their representations of meaning remain largely unexplored. Semi-structured interviews with six parents were conducted to address this gap in the literature. Interviews were examined using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), resulting in five main themes; Feelings evoked: “it’s disturbing to be honest”; Searching for meaning: “where is this coming from?”; Child’s identity as fragmented: “you never knew what you got”; Wanting distance: “I just couldn’t bear to be around him”; and Moving forwards; “I gave him a cuddle”. Policy and clinical practice implications are discussed including the importance of systemic approaches to intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Harmful sexual behaviour
• sexual offending
• parent
• child
• family treatment

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the parents who we have called Anna, Elaine, Laura, James, Angela and Sue. It is through their great generosity and openness in sharing parts of their lives that this research has been possible. Thanks also to the foster carer who helped create the interview schedule.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.