Teachers’ perceptions of enabling and hindering factors in child abuse disclosures

It is well argued in literature that teachers are ideally placed to observe and monitor children for signs of abuse and neglect, there are categories of abuse which are more difficult to observe in the school context, such as sexual abuse and rely on children ‘telling’ about their experience. For numerous and complex reasons, children find it difficult to ‘tell’; however, there are enabling factors that support children in this process. The aim of this paper is to outline primary or elementary school teachers’ opinions on the enabling and hindering factors to children talking and telling about abuse in the school environment. A qualitative research study was undertaken in the Irish context with 21 primary school teachers. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with all participants and as part of each interview, teachers elaborated on the barriers and facilitators which enable children to disclose abuse in the school environment. Particular barriers to children reporting in the school environment relate to how difficult it is for children to tell, the lack of meaningful collaboration between schools and the Child and Family Agency who have statutory responsibility in the Irish context for dealing with child protection reports and the lack of training available for teachers. Enablers to children telling in the school environment include the relationship of trust built between teacher and child and the implementation of a personal safety skills programme. This research highlights that teachers can create the conditions that support children talking about abuse and they must be properly supported and adequately trained to support them in doing so. • Lack of knowledge of what happens to children outside of school is a barrier to children disclosing abuse reported by teachers in this research. • An enabler to children disclosing abuse highlighted in the research findings is the relationships that are built with children by school teachers. • In the context of the research findings, the attention the teacher plays to developing the emotional aspect of the classroom is significant. • Teachers can create the conditions that support children to talk about abuse and it is paramount that they are trained to do so.