Summary
"Although many theoreticians have posited that cognitions concerning self, children, and other adults play a central role in the etiology and maintenance of child sexual abuse, knowledge in the area remains incomplete due, in part, to reliance on self-report measures, which are generally restricted to consciously accessible thoughts and susceptible to presentation bias. In the current study, the primary goal was to test for the existence of differences between the cognitions of child molesters and non-molesters using an implicit measure called the Implicit Association Test (IAT). To that end, 6 IATs were designed to measure the domains of evaluation, social power, and sexual attractiveness in self and in children (relative to adults). Participants were incarcerated men who had either been convicted of sexual offences against extrafamilial children under 14 years of age (N = 30) or who had not admitted to, been charged with, or been convicted of any sexual offences ( N = 31). As expected, child molesters viewed children (relative to adults) as significantly more sexually attractive than did the non-sex offenders, as measured by the sexy child IAT. Among the child molesters, a greater number of sexual offences was significantly associated with a view of self as less powerful and less sexually attractive, as measured, respectively, by the powerful self IAT and the sexy self IAT. These results remained even after a number of potential confounding variables were statistically or otherwise controlled. Although only partial support for the hypotheses was found, this study demonstrated that the IAT has much promise as a tool with which to study cognitions associated with child sexual abuse."--Abstract.