Making sense of children's sexual behavior in child care: An analysis of adult responses in special investigation reports

Frontline Workers' Response to Harmful Sexual Behavior: Building Blocks For Promising Practice

Frontline workers, including educators and health practitioners, play an important role in identifying and responding to harmful sexual behavior (HSB) carried out by children and young people. Despite this, there have been no reviews of the evidence about promising practice for how frontline workers could best manage this behavior. This article presents a scoping review of evidence exploring the research question: How can frontline professionals be trained and supported to better manage HSB carried out by children and young people? Multiple databases were searched in July 2020. Inclusion criteria included a focus on professional development or practice relating to children and young people displaying inappropriate sexual behavior or HSB; a population of frontline workers (teachers, health practitioners, coaches, childcare workers); and all study types, including gray literature. Two reviewers screened the articles, and findings from included papers were synthesized according to the method of thematic synthesis. Thirty-one papers were included in the review. Five themes were identified in response to the research question: process of identification and response, knowledge required to identify and respond, skills needed to identify and respond, organization-level supports, and system-level supports. The authors propose the "building blocks" for a promising practice model, which sets out the process of identification and response to HSB, and the knowledge required by frontline workers to support that process. Further, the model identifies the skills required by frontline workers to undertake the process of identification and response, as well as the organization-level and system-level scaffolding needed for good practice.

Children's Sexuality and Nudity in Discourse and Images in a Danish Education and Care Journal over 50 Years (1970-2019): The Emergence of "The Child Perpetrator of Sexual Abuse" in an International Perspective

In the late twentieth century, a new view of children as potential sexual abusers emerged. Today, more research addresses children's "problematic sexual behavior" than their natural sexuality, and even young children are stigmatized and criminalized because of species-typical sexual behavior. Despite the importance of this new field of research and view of childhood sexuality, studies of this development, its origins, and consequences are extremely rare. This study analyzed the discourse and images related to childhood sexuality in a Danish education and care journal for childcare professionals, from 1970 to 2019, to examine the emergence of "the child perpetrator of sexual abuse" in Denmark in the late 1990s, and traced the travelling of these ideas back to the United States, where this figure originated in the mid-1980s. The study revealed a radical change in views of childhood sexuality in Denmark from 1970 to 2019: from an extreme liberalism in the early decades-illustrated by a rare collection of photos of children's nudity and sexuality, of which a selection is reprinted in this article-to a view that strongly associates children's sexuality with sexual abuse. The study showed that the significant attention to and fear of child sexual abuse influenced the new view of childhood sexuality, and that this progressively took root in Danish childcare institutions, creating a panic. This article examines the knowledge, narratives, and the question of proportion regarding the cross-cultural view of children as potential sexual abusers, and discusses its consequences, combining a historical study and a dissection of an important, current phenomenon.

Verbal and Behavioral Expressions of Child Sexuality Among 1-6-Year-Olds as Observed by Daycare Professionals in Finland

A safe childhood respecting sexual rights forms the foundation of an individual's sexual health. However, the understanding, support, and protection of early sexuality are seldom discussed. Children already express their sexuality verbally and behaviorally in daycare, often requiring a response from staff. These day-to-day situations may have an influence on children's later sexuality. The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe and BZgA (2010) published a framework for professionals on age-appropriate, holistic sexuality education. Using this framework, we evaluated children's sexuality-related expressions in Finnish daycare. Our nationwide questionnaire among professionals in early childhood education and care (n = 507) focused on how 1-6-year-old children expressed their sexuality in their speech and behavior. All eight topics in the WHO framework emerged regularly. The two most prevalent topics were the body and emotions. Also, 71% of professionals had a child in their group who masturbated openly. Early sexual development manifested as curiosity about one's own body, exploring its functions, traits, and attributes, while on an emotional level it manifested as abundant feelings of infatuation and tenderness, shown openly toward those-peers and adults alike-whom the child cares for. Childhood sexuality is broadly and diversely present in children's verbal and behavioral expressions in daycare settings. Children need and have the right to receive explicit responses related to issues concerning their sexual development and to receive age-appropriate information, skills, and attitudes fostering healthy development.