My name is Matt Portner and I am a third-year doctoral student researcher and licensed therapist. Together, with my advisor, Leonardo Bobadilla, PhD, we are interested in surveying adults who self-identify as non-offending minor-attracted persons. Specifically, our study examines reasons for not acting on sexual attraction towards minors. I would greatly appreciate it if you took time to fill out a brief 15–20-minute survey.
Your participation is completely voluntary, and you may quit the survey at any time. Once you press the submit button at the end of the survey, your responses will be anonymously stored with all the other responses. Your completion of the questionnaire will constitute your informed consent to participate in this study. If you would like to participate, please click (or copy & paste) the following link:
If you have any questions or concerns about the project, you may contact Matt Portner at [email protected] and/or the Institutional Review Board at [email protected]
I would like to ask something. Why did you ask this: “Have you ever had a traumatic brain injury?”
Isn’t this a myth, that brain trauma causes pedophilia? As far as i know, there is no evidence that minor-attracted people must have brain injuries, or any other brain changes that the non-pedophiles don’t have.
I also saw some questions that push words like “therapy”, “therapist”, and “support”, as if minor-attraction is a disease/disorder that requires professional interventions.
There are a lot of therapists i can share my story with, but i KNOW im not broken, so im not going to share anything with therapists. I would share my story with friends, but not with professionals, because i don’t have any problems.
I marked “Strongly Disagree” on questions that ask if i interact with therapists.
What is this question: “I get the emotional help and support I need from my family.”? To help me for what?
And what about this question: “My friends really try to help me.”? To help me for what?
I answered all question, and submitted the survey. What i didn’t like is the fact that the study is based on the idea that pedophilia is a bad thing, and everyone who is attracted to minors, is depressed, anti-social, lonely, and needds therapy and social support. This is not true, and i (and every single mino-attracted person) can confirm that.
If you have more surveys, i would be glad to answer questions.
If you’re concerned about the way they’re phrased, it might help if you emailed them about it. Adjusting the wording might make it easier t get more interaction.
Please, please be polite and don’t be argumentative. You’re very argumentative on this forum, and it’s very concerning even to the admins over at Prostasia.
Thank you for your questions. I am happy to answer on the forum, but if there are other questions that may contain more personal information, please feel free to email me. I sincerely appreciate your participation in the study. While I have every intent to use language that is non-judgmental, I apologize that some of the questions presented the notion that being a MAP is a “bad thing” and that MAPs need professional intervention. Feedback, like this, is important if potential participants don’t want to participate because they feel the survey contains biased language. I mention this in the informed consent, but it is good to reiterate here as well: no one is mandated to participate, and if you feel uncomfortable at any time, you may exit. You are not required to complete the survey.
To address your concerns specifically, you are correct that there is no evidence based correlation between brain injury and identifying as a MAP. However, a brain injury may result in damage to specific areas of the brain that affect how we make decisions. It is not a primary topic for this study, but factors related to decision making may be a future direction for my research. Additionally, I do not assume that anyone is in need of therapy, but a therapist can be a great source of support. It sounds like you answered that question appropriately based on how you view therapists within your circle of support.
The specific questions you are referring to are part of the multidimensional scale of social support, which looks at support from friends, family, and therapists. Essentially, I am asking if you find one, some, or all of those individuals to be supportive in any area of your life where you may need support. Each question is worded based on how the authors of the scale created it.
Again, I appreciate you helping me out, and if you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out.
Nice. I didn’t want to make you to think that your study is bad. Your study is good, but i took it too deeply, because im an actual activist, and im becomng emotional when it comes to minor-attracted people.
The best way for this kind of studies, is to use neutral language as much as possible.
Thank you for the suggestion about neutral language as well as the compliment. The IRB is often pretty good for catching things that may be problematic, but rarely do they represent the individuals we try to recruit for participation. Receiving feedback from those who take the survey is always more helpful for me. My hope is that results from this study will help you and other activists, therapists, and support systems as well.
Thank you for helping to further disseminate! Quick disclaimer for you and anyone who would like to pass the survey along. I sincerely appreciate the help, but please be mindful that some sites/forums have specific rules about research and what can be posted. Admin approval is always best just in case a question or two does not meet the content standards. I am always open for admins to reach out if a specific question needs to be slightly re-worded. Thanks again!
