Despite 35% of Latina women saying they've experienced some form of sexual abuse as children, Dr. Tia Kim said there's a surprising lack of prevention resource available in Spanish.
Studies by the National Institutes of Health show that 35% of Latina women report experiencing some form of sexual abuse as children. While research shows these numbers can be somewhat comparable to those of White women, Dr. Tia Kim, vice president of education, research, and impact at Committee for Children, said there’s a disparity in prevention resources, noting a “surprising lack” of materials available in Spanish.
“Almost 90% of child sexual abuse cases, the perpetrator is someone the child and the family knows pretty well," Kim said. "...These conversations are super important across all families, and so we want to make sure and ensure that we have resources in different languages.”
The Committee for Children, a non-profit with a national focus on children’s health and advocacy, is using its 5th-annual Hot Chocolate Talk campaign to start to bridge this gap. By releasing how-to guides in Spanish, it hopes to take the guesswork out of sexual abuse conversations between parents and their kids.
“To really think about the three R’s of safety, really helping kids how to recognize the difference between safe and unsafe touches, how to refuse unwanted touches and most importantly to report… and really frame them around personal safety," Kim explained, "...Like how parents would talk to their kids about other safety rules such as ‘make sure you wear your helmet before you ride your bike,’ in the same vein we should be having these kinds of conversations with our kids.’”
Kim said normalizing these discussions is a strong step to preventing abuse against women and girls everywhere.