Prevenzione dell'abuso sessuale extrafamiliare: indagine su padri e madri in ambiente urbano e rurale

Prevention of extra-family sexual abuse: a study on mothers and fathers in urban and rural environment. The purpose of the present research is to assess parents attitude towards sexual education, argued to be a possible form extra-family sexual abuse prevention. Especially, differences in the attitude towards the sexual education and in the awareness of extra-family abuse had been investigated in relationship to parents sex (father versus mother), the settlement type (urban versus rural), children age (6, 8, and 10 years), and children sex (male versus female). The study demanded the compilation of structured interview. The results underline a positive but uncertain attitude of parents towards sexual education of their children. Parents choice to provide sexual education to their children depends on children age (10 years old are considered more suitable for sexual education), parents sex (mothers approve sexual education more than fathers; moreover, mothers retain sexual education a form of sexual abuse prevention more than fathers do), and settlement type (parents from urban settlement believe in the value of sexual education for their own children significantly more than parents from rural ones).