La révélation d’un inceste entre frère et sœur dans le cadre d’une prise en charge pédopsychiatrique : étude qualitative auprès d’adolescentes et leurs parents

Objective

Incest among siblings is a topic that is not often discussed despite its frequency. The objective of this study is to explore the subjective experience of the disclosure of brother/sister incest by the adolescent victim and their parents in the context of child psychiatric care.

Method

This is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with three adolescent victims who were under child psychiatric care and who had revealed the brother/sister incest to their caregivers for the first time, as well as with two mothers of adolescent victims. The analysis of the data was conducted using the interpretative phenomenological analysis method.

Results

The results include eleven themes grouped into three meta-themes: (1) pre-disclosure: a state of unease that leads to the initiation of care; (2) the experience of disclosure to a health professional; (3) post-disclosure and its consequences. The different themes highlight the specificities of the experience of the disclosure of incest during the teenage years and the consequences for the parent–child relationship and also for the victim's relationship to the family depending on the adolescent's perspective, parental support, and the medical and legal support.

Conclusion

The vulnerability of the adolescent population in a context of disclosure of intrafamilial sexual abuse between brothers and sisters makes it essential that we conceive of care in a specific way and take into account family and transcultural approaches. This study allows us to identify research perspectives in the field of child psychiatry as well as to formulate concrete clinical proposals, in particular a multidisciplinary support protocol on three different levels: individual, parental and familial.