Project Director
Walker, Ruth
Department Examiner
Madden, Julie
Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Child sexual grooming is a prevalent issue within the United States, especially with the rise of the internet and social media (Shakeshaft, 2004; Finkelhor et al., 2000; Winters et al., 2017). There has been less research done on adolescent sexual grooming; however, researchers have found that perceptions of adolescent sexual grooming vary depending on the gender and age of the offender and victim (Russel & Gyrus, 2022; Sahl & Keene, 2012). Researchers have found that people perceive a sexual grooming relationship as inflicting more harm if the perpetrator is a man (Hernandez et al., 2019), particularly an older man (Russel & Gyrus, 2022), or if the victim is younger (Hernandez et al., 2019). Research on adolescent sexual grooming has heavily revolved around educator sexual misconduct and online sexual grooming. Further, researchers have focused predominantly on the experiences of perpetrators and survivors, with limited focus on outsider perceptions, particularly for grooming relationships initiated by religious leaders or family friends. To address this gap, an experimental study will be conducted to understand how people’s perceptions of grooming behavior varies by levels of attractiveness and relationship with the victim. I hypothesize that adolescent sexual grooming will be perceived as less problematic when the offender is more attractive. I also hypothesize that a relationship with an obvious power imbalance, such as the offender being a religious leader, will be perceived as more problematic than a relationship with a more ambiguous power imbalance, such as the offender being a family friend. My first hypothesis was not supported. Level of attractiveness did not have a significant effect on perceptions of problematic behavior. My second hypothesis was supported. Relationship type did have a significant effect on perceptions of problematic behavior as respondents believed that victims would experience less harm in a relationship with a family friend than with a teacher or religious leader.
IRB Number
23-090
Degree
B. S.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science.
Date
5-2024
Subject
Child grooming (Child sexual abuse); Sexual abuse victims--Psychology
Discipline
Developmental Psychology
Document Type
Theses
Extent
iii, 32 leaves
DCMI Type
Text
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Date Available
10-1-2025
Recommended Citation
Shappley, Alexandra, "Effects of attractiveness and relationship type of perceptions of adolescent sexual grooming" (2024). Honors Theses.
https://scholar.utc.edu/honors-theses/463
Department
Dept. of Psychology