Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States; Children's of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, United States.
General Pediatrics Residency Program, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Feb;112:104896. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104896. Epub 2021 Jan 9.
The trafficking of children and adolescents is widespread, and pediatric providers are on the front line. Current research demonstrates that trafficked children do access health care. However, few studies describe these interactions from their perspectives. In order to elucidate the healthcare experiences of sex trafficked children, we designed a qualitative study utilizing semi-structured interviews to explore their health care interactions.
Homeless youth currently aged 18-21 who were sex trafficked before age 18.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seventeen youth who met the study criteria. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed using constant comparative methods. Themes were inductively extracted by consensus with the study team, and thematic saturation was determined when no new themes emerged.
Themes included: victims endured serious injuries and illnesses without being brought to medical attention, traffickers limited victims' access to care, logistical barriers limited access, traffickers directed victims to lie to providers, and medical providers rarely separated victims to interview them separately resulting in missed opportunities.
These themes illustrate the experiences of sex trafficked youth experiencing homelessness and provide pediatric practitioners the opportunity to become more informed and equipped to recognize them. They also highlight serious health consequences of not being identified and egregious examples of providers exhibiting denial or inappropriate responses to their disclosure.
儿童和青少年贩卖现象普遍存在，儿科医生处于前线。目前的研究表明，被贩卖的儿童确实会寻求医疗保健。然而，很少有研究从他们的角度描述这些互动。为了阐明被贩卖儿童的医疗保健经历，我们设计了一项定性研究，利用半结构化访谈来探索他们的医疗保健互动。
目前年龄在 18-21 岁之间的无家可归青年，他们在 18 岁之前曾被贩卖为性奴。
对符合研究标准的 17 名青年进行了半结构化访谈。使用恒定性比较方法对访谈记录进行编码和分析。主题通过研究小组的共识进行归纳提取，当没有新主题出现时，确定主题是否达到饱和。
主题包括：受害者遭受严重伤害和疾病，但未得到医疗关注，贩卖者限制受害者获得医疗服务，实际困难限制了他们的医疗服务获取，贩卖者指导受害者向提供者撒谎，医疗提供者很少将受害者分开单独询问，导致错失机会。
这些主题说明了无家可归的被贩卖性奴青年的经历，使儿科医生有机会更加了解他们，并为识别他们做好准备。它们还突出了未被识别的严重健康后果，以及提供者对其披露表现出否认或不适当反应的恶劣例子。
