Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Eric W. Hickey

Abstract

Male health care provider sexual misconduct with minor patients is an ongoing problem in the United States. Previous research has produced a scant amount of insight regarding the phenomenon, and there is a lack of causal model development. Multimodal self-regulation theory served as the guide for the research questions in this study, which explored the psychopathology, paraphilia, and negative childhood experiences of male U.S. health care providers who commit sexual misconduct against minor patients. The goal was to develop offender profiles for each of five health care provider groups. Exploratory research was used with a grounded theory design for data collection purposes. Purposive sampling was used to examine 25 archival cases of male U.S. health care providers who commit sexual misconduct with minor patients: five from each health care provider group: physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors, and nurses. Data were collected from a researcher-provided data set and from publicly available sources of information. Data analysis was conducted through thematic analysis to develop familiarity and themes. In vivo coding was used to avoid potential biases and identify patterns in the data. The themes observed were (a) nonsexual behavior, (b) sexual behavior, and (c) offender childhood experiences. Examples of findings include the presence of antisocial personality traits, paraphilia, and negative childhood experiences. Potential implications for positive social change that could occur as a result of this study include structured interviews for future research, organizational review of policies to inhibit future incidents, and handling sexual misconduct complaints seriously without bias or assumption.

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