Exploring the Lived Experiences of Incest Victims and Views of Informants

Abstract

Incest has been described as an abuse which leaves victims with serious adverse effects such as poor psychological health and suicidal tendencies. To curb this menace, efforts need to be made to create positive environments for victims of incest to lessen the effect that the abuse has on the victims. This study thus aimed at exploring subjective experiences of incest victims and the support that key informants in the society could provide, and barriers that hinder the provision of their services to the victims of incest abuse in the Shai Osudoku district in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The study was mainly qualitative in nature but used quantitative measures to assess the psychological distress levels of the victims. In all, 20 participants were used for the study, 8 of whom were incest victims and 12, school professionals. Findings from this study showed that the victims of incest received little or no support upon disclosure of the abuse, relied on intrinsic coping mechanisms, experienced high levels of psychological distress and reported suicidal behaviours. Further, school professionals were also limited in the kind of help they could provide due to lack of appropriate personnel and inadequate societal support and infrastructure. These findings imply that, the environment of these victims does not encourage disclosure and trusted adults are unable to provide the needed support and protection that these victims require.