Detecting Grooming Behaviors in Same-Sex versus Opposite-Sex Child Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a prevalent concern that often leads to severe, life-long consequences. Grooming is an early indicator of CSA, and it is imperative to be able to recognize these behaviors in adult-child relationships to prevent abuse from occurring. Research on CSA and grooming has primarily focused on opposite-sex (male adult and female child) abuse while little research has focused on same-sex (male adult and male child) abuse. The current study examined how the sex of the adult-child pair might impact the identification of grooming behaviors. Participants in this study were presented with a series of vignettes depicting grooming and non-grooming behaviors in either same-sex or opposite-sex adult-child pairs. Participants were more likely to label the behaviors presented as grooming when shown situations involving an opposite-sex adult-child pair as opposed to a same-sex adult-child pair.