Chris A. Smith, Pacific University
Smith, Chris A. (2019). Protective Factors Against Pedophilic Acts (Doctoral dissertation, Pacific University).
Retrieved from: https://commons.pacificu.edu/spp/1383
Date of Award Summer 7-2-2019
Degree Type Dissertation
Degree Name Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Abstract
Pedophilic disorder (PD) is defined as having recurring fantasies of someone 13 years old or younger for a length of six months that cause distress or interpersonal difficulty (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The causes of PD are unknown, and the treatments of PD lag far behind those of other disorders (Ellsworth, 2014; Seto & Ahmed, 2014). Moreover, most of the research on pedophilia has been conducted with individuals who have been convicted of pedophilic offenses. This line of research has shed light into the risk factors associated with pedophilic criminal offending, but consequently, little is known about protective factors of people who have pedophilic disorder but have never acted on those attractions. Some data suggest that pornography use may increase the risk of offending while social support reduces it. The present study helps fill this gap by recruiting people with pedophilic disorder who are not sex offenders against children (SOAC) from various online social media sources and exploring the role that social support and pornography use play in their subjective risk of offending. While there was no significant finding between likelihood of offending and friend support or therapist support, there was a significant finding found between likelihood of offending and both family support and pornography use.
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