Parent Survey on Awareness and Perception of Child Sexual Abuseback

Research Background

After July 2012, End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation commissioned the Public Opinion Programme (POP) of The University of Hong Kong in March 2017 again to conduct this “Parent Survey on Awareness and Perception of Child Sexual Abuse” targeting Cantonese- or Putonghua-speaking local parents who are raising at least one child studying in primary school in Hong Kong. The survey aimed to gauge Hong Kong parent’s perception and opinion on child sexual abuse and the “Sexual Conviction Record Check” mechanism.

The research instrument used in this study was designed entirely by the POP Team after consulting End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation, while both POP and End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation had equal say in the final instrument. Moreover, fieldwork operations, data collection and data analysis were conducted independently by the POP Team, without interference from any party. In other words, although the content of the questionnaire mainly came from the commissioning organization, POP was given full autonomy to design and conduct the survey, and POP would take full responsibility for all the findings reported herewith.

Research Design

Telephone interviews were conducted by interviewers under close supervision. All data were collected by our interviewers using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) system invented by the research team which allowed real-time data capture and consolidation. To ensure data quality, on top of on-site supervision, voice recording, screen capturing and camera surveillance were used to monitor the interviewers' performance.

Telephone numbers are randomly generated using known prefixes assigned to telecommunication services providers under the Numbering Plan provided by the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA). Invalid numbers are then eliminated according to computer and manual dialing records to produce the final sample.

The target population of this survey was Cantonese- or Putonghua-speaking local parents who are raising at least one child studying in primary school in Hong Kong. When telephone contact was successfully established with a target household, one eligible subject was interviewed. If more than one eligible subject had been available, selection was made using the "next birthday rule" which selected the person who had his/her birthday next. The survey was conducted during the period of April 13 to May 12, 2017. A total of 508 eligible subjects were successfully interviewed. The effective response rate of this survey was 70.0%, and the standard sampling error for percentages based on this sample was less than 2.2 percentage points. In other words, the sampling error for all percentages using the total sample was less than plus/minus 4.4 percentage points at 95% confidence level.

• Survey on “Sexual Conviction Record Check” Mechanism 2012