Responding to problematic sexual behaviours of primary school children: supporting care and education staff

ABSTRACT

Early childhood and primary educators’ and carers’ education and support in identifying and responding appropriately to children displaying problematic sexual behaviours has fallen behind the demands currently arising in care and education sites in Australia. This is a key finding of research examining professional educators’ and carers’ experiences of problematic sexual behaviours in their workplaces, their understanding of problematic sexual behaviours, and their source of training in this area. This paper reports on the professional development, workplace and community support for educators and affected children, which educators and carers wanted to have implemented to more adequately respond to their professional needs and the needs of affected children and their families. The research was conducted using an online survey in 2016 and involved 107 respondents from government, independent and Catholic primary schools, preschools and care organisations.

KEYWORDS:

• Problematic sexual behaviours
• teacher professional development
• workplace support
• child protection
• Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ‘Guidance officers provide a comprehensive guidance and counselling service for students and their families, and professional and personal skill development programmes for school staff.’ (Queensland Education Department). https://qed.qld.gov.au/working-with-us/det-induction/queensland-state-schools/support-staff/specialist-support-officers/guidance-officers-and-psychologists.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of South Australia [18-14-120848].