The prevalence and context of incest abuse in Finland.

The prevalence and context of father-daughter incest was surveyed in Finland in connection with a larger study about physical and sexual child abuse in 1988. A random sample of 409 comprehensive school classes with about 9,000 15-year-olds were asked to fill out questionnaires anonymously. The majority (93%) responded in the privacy of the school nurse's office, the rest in their classrooms. Eighty-nine percent of the selected classes participated in the survey and the response rate of the students in those classes was 96%. Girls reporting sexual experiences with their father or stepfather was 5%. Girls reporting experiences with their biological father was 2% and 3.7% of the girls living with a stepfather reported sexual experiences with him. This survey shows that the feelings of the girls about their incestual experiences are overwhelmingly negative. The results are compared with prevalence estimates from the U.S. and the Nordic countries.