Department of Psychology, NHS Lothian, UK.
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 May;115:105005. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105005. Epub 2021 Mar 7.
Despite debates on what should constitute sexual interest in children in terms of definition and diagnostic criteria and its strong association with individuals who commit sexual offences against children, research in this area has shown that sexual interest in children is also commonly seen in the general population. Studies in this field have investigated its prevalence and its correlates. However, most research on this topic has focused on men and most particularly sex offender populations. When investigating the general population, again the vast majority of studies used male samples and students.
This systematic review aimed to critically evaluate previous research on the prevalence of sexual interest in children across populations and to examine its correlates.
A search of relevant databases was conducted as well as a hand search of selected journals to identify eligible papers. Studies meeting the inclusion criteria had their data extracted and were assessed for risk of bias, with a second rater to establish inter-rater reliability.
A total of 30 studies were reviewed and results indicated a mean prevalence rate of sexual interest in children between 2 %-24 %. Findings also indicated correlates such as the presence of mental health problems and adverse childhood experiences. Most studies showed poor external validity, with the majority of them scoring high on risk of bias.
Overall, the findings indicate inconsistencies in terms of methodology and definition/diagnostic criteria of sexual interest in children. Further research in this area using recommended methodology to avoid biases is recommended.
尽管关于什么构成对儿童的性兴趣在定义和诊断标准方面存在争议，而且这种性兴趣与对儿童实施性犯罪的个体密切相关，但该领域的研究表明，对儿童的性兴趣在普通人群中也很常见。该领域的研究调查了其流行率及其相关因素。然而，大多数关于该主题的研究都集中在男性，特别是性犯罪者群体上。在调查普通人群时，同样绝大多数研究使用男性样本和学生。
本系统综述旨在批判性评估以往关于不同人群中对儿童的性兴趣的流行率的研究，并探讨其相关因素。
对相关数据库进行了检索，并对选定的期刊进行了手工检索，以确定符合条件的论文。符合纳入标准的研究提取了其数据，并评估了偏倚风险，由第二位评估者确定了评估者间的可靠性。
共审查了 30 项研究，结果表明对儿童的性兴趣的平均流行率在 2%-24%之间。研究结果还表明存在心理健康问题和不良的童年经历等相关因素。大多数研究显示出较差的外部有效性，其中大多数研究的偏倚风险评分较高。
总体而言，研究结果表明在对儿童的性兴趣的方法和定义/诊断标准方面存在不一致。建议在该领域进一步使用推荐的方法进行研究，以避免偏差。
