Cognitive factors in sexually aggressive children

Abstract

This project explored a Social Cognitive Model applied to 6-12 year old male sexually aggressive children in Washington state care. The 37 sexually aggressive children's results on cognitive measures (Children's Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire, Social Problem Solving Measure, Matson's Evaluation of Social Skills for Youth) and behavioral measures (Child Behavior Checklist, Eyeberg's Inventory, Child Sexual Behavior Inventory), were compared to physically aggressive children (17) and non aggressive children (15) also in state care using development and Intelligence Quotient as mediator variables (Vineland Inventory, Inventory of Piaget's Developmental Tasks and Kaufman's Brief Intelligence Test). The sexually aggressive and physically aggressive children have distortions about their aggressive behaviors. The sexually aggressive children have some distortions regarding touching. Cognitive deficiencies were not found.