Adolescents' knowledge and awareness regarding sexual abuse in a rural area of the Northern Cape

Abstract

Adolescent youth in most countries of the world such as America and South Africa are at risks which results from issues such as poverty, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. There are many factors such as culture, family structure, poverty, pornography and substance abuse that may play a role in adolescents being sexually abused. As a social worker in the Hartswater district, the researcher discovered that no organisation in the area render any services or programmes in preventing adolescents from being sexually abused over the last six years. Due to this and because no research has been done specifically on this topic in the rural areas of the Frances Baard areas of the Northern Cape, the aim of the study was to explore and describe adolescents’ knowledge and awareness regarding sexual abuse. The researcher used the simple descriptive design (Botma, Greeff, Mulaudzi & Wright, 2010:111). The population was made up of adolescents between the ages 15 and 17 years (in grade 9 to grade 12), of any gender and who attended schools in the Frances Baard area which consists of areas in Warrenton, Jan Kempdorp (including Ganspan), Pampierstad and Hartswater. The adolescents’ parents or legal guardians were on the caseloads of social workers from the Department of Social Development, Caritas Community Focus and Child Welfare. A self-administrated questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire consisted of two sections namely Section A: Biographical details of the adolescent and section B: Knowledge and awareness regarding sexual abuse. The questionnaire measured particular adolescents’ knowledge and awareness regarding sexual abuse and environmental circumstances under which sexual abuse might occur in a rural area of the Northern Cape Province. The questionnaire was send to the Statistical Consultation Services of the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University for testing and clarification. The results of this research indicated that the adolescent’s knowledge and awareness regarding sexual abuse is limited in the rural areas of the Northern Cape.