Work towards change in South Asian Communities by participating in this research exploring the impacts of child sexual abuse of female adult victims
Vanisha Jassal, senior lecturer at the University of Kent is inviting female adult victims of child sexual abuse from South Asian Communities and practitioners to participate in her doctoral research exploring the intra-familial child sexual abuse of females within South Asian families living in England.
Please find below details about:
- the aims and purpose of her research,
- her research methods,
- how she plan to deal with the research in sensitive and confidential ways
- Contact to participate in the research
- and how Quetzal can support you in this journey if you are living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Your voice will support our joint work towards change.
What are the aims and purpose of the research?
Child sexual abuse is a traumatic experience for children and young people and the emotional damage this has upon individuals is well documented.
In all communities, it largely remains the ‘hidden’ form of abuse, as disclosure by victims is rare and often takes place once they are in adulthood. Its pervasiveness is therefore difficult to determine but research generally shows that it occurs more frequently than official statistics indicate and what the general public may assume.
For these reasons, and others, it also remains a challenge for practitioners in terms of assessing this abuse and putting in place relevant interventions.
This is found to be even more the case for children from South Asian communities, namely, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani heritage. This is likely to be because of concepts such as ‘Shame’ and ‘Honour’ which are likely to reinforce the silence of this abuse. My research seeks to increase our understanding about this.
What are the research methods?
I will be undertaking one to one conversations with Survivors and practitioners.
The meeting will last one hour and will be audio-recorded so that I as the researcher can focus on the session rather than on making notes.
It is a common feature of research and I will be the sole person listening to the audio and transcribing the material from the audio. This will be clearly explained to participants.
What are your plan to conduct the research with sensitivity and confidentiality?
I understand the difficulty of talking about this subject matter so will undertake my research in the most sensitive and confidential way, making the research participation as comfortable as possible.
I will also be abiding by the University of Kent research ethics standards. All participation will be confidential and all information anonymized throughout.
Participants will have the right to withdraw their involvement from the project at any time before or during the sessions.
Only I as the researcher will have access to the audios and transcripts and participants will be given a copy of the transcripts to check and keep.
All of this will be outlined on the consent form so that participants are clear about all of this prior to their involvement. The participant will be asked to sign this form to indicate that they have understood all of this.
The sessions will be taking place in locations convenient to the participant if this is preferred and will be sought out by me as the researcher and I will reimburse reasonable travel costs.
Contact details to participate in the research
I am a female of Indian heritage; second generation, born in England. The research can include participants for whom English may not be a first language as I am fluent in Punjabi and Hindi. Other languages can be accommodated for through an interpreter as appropriate.
Please note that the participants will all be over 21 years of age and will be sharing experiences from historical, closed cases and not cases which are currently under investigation.
Please email me at sacsauk@gmail.com or call me on 07958 558 193.
If you think that your organisation can assist in this research or if you wish to discuss this research further, please contact me.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this information and I very much hope that we can work together during this research.
A word from Quetzal
Breaking the Silence about Childhood Sexual Abuse can lead us towards change as more people understand what are the needs and requirements for supporting individuals and specific communities.
As part of the Breaking the Silence Initiative and through Quetzal Voices, we are learning and making the changes so that more women who experienced childhood sexual abuse can access our services when they are ready.
To submit a story about your involvement in creating change so that more women who experience childhood sexual abuse can decide if they are ready to access support, write to media (at) quetzal.org.uk
If you want to start your counselling journey, call us now on 0333 101 4280.
