Sexual Violence against Children with Disabilities: A Danish National Birth Cohort Prospective Study

	Exposed to sexual violence N=8860		Not exposed to sexual violence N=561491
Diagnosis	n	%	n	%
Autistic spectrum disorder	173	1.95	11,599	2.07
ADHD	520	5.87	13,399	2.39
Speech disability	363	4.10	9,989	1.78
Sensory disability	157	1.77	6,805	1.21
Epilepsy	166	1.87	7,673	1.37
Intellectual disability	142	1.60	3,671	0.65
Brain injury	766	8.65	34,332	6.11
Physical disability	463	5.23	21,821	3.89
Dyslexia	34	0.38	1,369	0.24
Cong. Malformations	895	10.10	56,012	9.98

1 Notes. The table shows the number and proportions being exposed to sexual violence for each type of disability.

Table 2.

Risk of being a victim of sexual violence based on parental and family risk factors

	Exposed to sexual violence N=8,860		Not exposed to sexual violence N=561,491		Odds Ratio
Risk factor	Exposed	%	Exposed	%	OR	95% CI
Mental diagnosis	3,263	36.83	106,869	19.03	2.48	2.37-2.59
Abuse (alcohol or drugs)	1,162	13.12	26,505	4.72	3.05	2.86-3.25
Violence (perpetrator or victim)	2,818	31.81	77,928	13.88	2.89	2.76-3.03
Out-of-home care	1,194	13.48	16,931	3.02	5.01	4.70-5.34
Preventive in-home care	1,796	20.27	50,696	9.03	2.56	2.43-2.70
Relationship dissolved	6,392	72.14	262,794	46.80	2.94	2.81-3.09
Teenage motherhood	285	3.22	6,696	1.19	2.75	2.43-3.11
Unemployment	7,014	79.16	355,984	63.40	2.19	2.08-2.31

1 Notes. The table shows odds ratios (OR) for being exposed to sexual violence for each type of family risk factor.

Table 3.

Unadjusted and adjusted risk of being a victim of sexual violence based on disability and family risk factors (N = 570,351)

Diagnosis	Unadjusted OR	95% CI	Adjusted OR	95% CI
Autistic spectrum disorder	0.94	0.81-1.10	0.88	0.75-1.03
ADHD	2.55	2.33-2.79	2.01	1.82-2.22
Speech disability	2.36	2.11-2.63	1.67	1.49-1.88
Sensory disability	1.47	1.25-1.73	1.17	0.99-1.38
Epilepsy	1.38	1.17-1.61	1.02	0.87-1.20
Intellectual disability	2.48	2.08-2.93	1.62	1.35-1.94
Brain injury	1.45	1.35-1.57	1.30	1.20-1.40
Physical disability	1.36	1.24-1.50	1.20	1.08-1.32
Dyslexia	1.58	1.09-2.21	1.14	0.79-1.64
Cong. Malformations	1.01	0.94-1.09	1.03	0.96-1.11

1 Note. Adjusted ORs controlling for gender, birth year and ethnic background.

Table 4.

Risk of being a victim of sexual violence based on number of disabilities

Number of disabilities	Unadjusted OR	95% CI	Adjusted OR	95% CI
1 disability	1.38	1.32-1.45	1.75	1.25- 2.46
2 disabilities	1.90	1.73-2.08	2.69	1.37- 5.29
3 or more disabilities	2.01	1.70-2.38	3.50	1.18-10.43

1 Note. ORs based on a logistic regression of an indicator variable for being exposed to sexual violence on number of disabilities (reference group is no disabilities), diagnoses, family risk factors, gender, birth year and ethnic background. N: 570,351.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjcapp-2023-0015 | Journal eISSN: 2245-8875

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Language: English

Page range: 143 - 149

Published on: Dec 16, 2023

Published by: Center for Evidence-based Psychiatry

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

disabilities,

children & adolescents,

sexual violence,

national birth cohort,

prospective

Related subjects:

Medicine,

Basic medical science,

Basic medical science, other

© 2023 Ask Elklit, Siobhan Murphy, Christian Skovgaard, Mette Lausten, published by Center for Evidence-based Psychiatry
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 11 (2023): Issue 1 (January 2023)