Guidelines for support to mothers of sexually abused children in North-West Province

Abstract

Introduction - Sexual abuse against children and infant is increasing at a shocking rate in South Africa. Report of South African Police Service for 2008/2009 indicates that South Africa has the highest baby and infant rape in the world, with more than 67,000 rape cases annually in the country. Children are the victims of 41% of all rape cases and attempted rape reported in the country Often mothers are blamed for not taking care or supporting their sexually abused children (SAC) post disclosure and yet there is no documentation of their experiences or their support to these mothers within North West Province.The purpose of this study was to explore and described the experiences of mothers of SAC with the aim of developing guidelines for support to these mothers in North West Province. Methods - Concurrent convergence triangulation mixed method design comprising of three phases was adopted for this study. Stage one comprised qualitative and stage two consisted of quantitative. Stage one explored and described the experiences of mothers of SAC while stage two determined the correlations between demographic data, coping strategies, levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) , depression and social support. Phase two comprised literature review and conceptual framework while phase three is guidelines development The population consisted non abusive

mothers of SAC and participants aged 19 years to 70 years whose children aged 0 to 16 years were interviewed. A purposive sampling technique was used to select mothers of SAC. In depth unstructured interview was conducted on 17 participants until data saturation was reached in stage one TESCH's method was used to analyse data. The sample size for stage two was180 participants determined through the use of Raosoft sample size calculator. Four instruments namely: Brief Cope Inventory, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Beck Depression Inventory and Social Support Grid were used to collect data regarding coping, PTSD, depression level and social support level respectively. Data was analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. Chi-Square and frequency distribution were employed to analyse the demographic characteristics, examine the association among depression, PTSD levels, coping strategies and social support received of participants'. Results - The findings showed that mothers expressed various types of trauma. They also blamed themselves for not taking care of their children, and demonstrated a wide range of psychological difficulties and lack of support from stakeholders. The age of participants ranged between 19 to 70 years, with the majority of respondents in the 30-40years bracket at 35%. The results also showed extreme PTSD 47.8%, little support 38.8%, not coping 76.1 % and little depression 36.1 %.The relationship between variables indicated the following: PTSD and social support P- value 0.363, depression and social support P- value 0.540, coping skill and PTSD P-value 0.576, coping and depression P-value 0.648. There was no statistical significance among the variables because the P-values are more than the significance level of 0.05.

Conclusions - Guidelines for support to mothers of SAC are discussed based on the six systems of the ecological model of the impact of Sexual Assault on Women 's Mental Health and in relation to the three themes that emerged during data analysis as well as the related statements. Recommendations are made for nursing education practice, research and for the policy makers.