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06/24/2025—An expert from the Guam Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence said community awareness and giving children the tools to recognize maltreatment are important ways to prevent childhood abuse.
Speaking at the Division of Youth Services’ Addressing Adverse Childhood Experience Training held last June 20 at Aqua Resort Club, Nadine Cepeda identified these as the key takeaways from her presentation “Identifying Signs of Abuse/Violence & Early Stages”
“I think it's very important because as a community they're strengthening their laws and advocacy and I think the key word is awareness. That we need to stop violence and in order to do that it starts with awareness. It's building capacity and giving law enforcement, social workers, probation officers, everyone advocacy. Everyone plays a role in the community to keep our children and victims safe from sexual assault and abuse,” said the lead psychologist of the Guam Department of Education and director of Behavior Health Services during an interview with Marianas Press.
As for children, Cepeda said it’s important to engrain in them what is abuse and what to do it if it happens to them.
“We need to value our bodies and it is not okay for someone to touch us. We need to arm and give the tools to our children so they know that it's wrong and they have to speak up. That's the only way we can change that cognition or their thought process so then they can change things around for their future kids.”
The sobering truth, she said, is research on child abuse indicates that it happens over and over, it’s repetitive, and it's generational.
“We are very close-knit in the Micronesia. We all think about family. Families don't hurt each other and that [child abuse] is hurting and violating someone. That is not a value in any culture to hurt somebody. That is a learned behavior. In order to make a change, we need to speak up and give these tools to the children and to even women and men.”
She also dispelled the myth that the large number of sexual abuse cases is contained only locally—the CNMI and Guam—as he noted the statistic that every 68 seconds someone in America is being sexually assaulted.
“That's alarming. It's just underreported because it's associated to these feelings of shame and guilt and so many others. Trauma is the biggest thing of all. Again, this whole awareness, we need to stop that and say we are familia and families don't hurt each other,” she said, while adding that men are also not immune to sexual abuse.
At the end of the day, Cepeda said trainings like what she did last June 20 goes a long way in helping stop child abuse as well as all manner of abuse in the community.
“It takes partnerships and collaboration. It takes a community to make that change. Guam has come a long way that more people are reporting it. Can you imagine if we weren't giving this awareness, many people wouldn't speak out and they are now. I think that's the first start. We're heading and moving in the right direction.”
And speaking of the training, she shared specific techniques to recognize child abuse.
Physical signs that a child may have experienced child sexual abuse
• Headaches
• Stomach aches
• Bed-wetting
• Change in appetite and/or weight loss
• Nightmares and sleep disturbances
• Bruises on soft parts of the body, like the buttocks or thighs
• Changes in the genital area, such as redness, swelling, or discharge
• Pain or burning when going to the toilet
Signs of sexual abuse in children
• The child is quieter or more distant than usual
• The child is clingier than usual
• Unusual or new fears, sometimes around touch, being alone, being with a particular person, or in a particular place
• Difficulty concentrating or with memory, zoning out, seeming distracted or not listening
• Sexual themes in artwork, stories, play etc.
• “Acting out” behaviors (aggression, destructive behaviors, truanting behavior)
• “Acting in” behaviors (withdrawal from friends and family, depression)
• Problems with friends and schoolwork/attendance
• Vague symptoms of illness, such as a headache or a tummy ache
• Self-harm (cutting, risky behavior)
• Asking vague questions or making vague statements about topics such as secrets, unusual 'games', or adult behaviors
Emotional and behavioral changes associated with child sexual abuse
• Depression, anxiety, and mood changes, including social withdrawal and dissociation
• Self-harm or suicidal ideation
• Poor self-care or personal hygiene
• Harmful substance use
• Over-compliance and eagerness to please
• Aggressiveness and anger
• Running away
• De-sexualisation—for example, wearing baggy clothes to hide their gender
• Anxiety-related illnesses such as anorexia or bulimia
• Fear and avoidance of certain people and places
Emotional and behavioral changes on young children or children with disability who are sexually abused
• Behavioral issues, particularly those that the child or young person has not shown in the past, including emotional outbursts, self-harm, and heightened aggression
• Regression in developmental achievements
• developmental delays, for example, delayed speech, crawling, or walking
• Self-stimulatory behaviors, for example, rocking and head banging.
Aside from the alarming stat that every 68 seconds someone in America is being sexually assaulted, Cepeda also shared the following:
Nearly 1 in 5 (18.3%) women and 1 in 71 men (1.4%) reported experiencing rape at some time in their lives.
Approximately 1 in 20 women and men (5.6% and 5.3%, respectively) experienced sexual violence other than rape, such as being made to penetrate someone else, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact, or non-contact unwanted sexual experiences, in the 12 months prior to the survey.
4.8% of men reported they were made to penetrate someone else at some time in their lives.
13% of women and 6% of men reported they experienced sexual coercion at some time in their lives.
1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (14.8% completed, 2.8% attempted).
Younger people are at the highest risk of sexual violence and majority of sexual assault victims are under 30 (15% age 12-17, 54% age 18-34m 28% age 35-64, 3% age 65+)
In a later session, Cepeda presented “Working with children exposed to domestic violence in school settings.”
DYS administrator Vivian Sablan thanked Cepeda for her presentations, adding that the techniques she shared would help advocates spread awareness and identify signs of child abuse.
“We learn every time there's a presenter that comes in, but what makes today unique is [how to better set up] our interviews with a lot of considerations with humankind, human nature, making that meaningful connection, making the connection that will enable our program participants to provide as much feedback as we can get, versus creating that very structured approach. So basically, it's like opening up the discussion, making it easier, and making our folks more comfortable to share as we go through the interview process.”
Sablan stressed that through trainings like these, DYS and its partners get to improve the way they combat not only child abuse but all kinds of abuse prevalent in the community. Awareness is also spread more effectively through these types of trainings, she said.
“When you look at our data, and you compare it for maybe the last four years, I know that our numbers have grown, and I know that's not something that we should be, you know, excited about or what, but we try to look at it at a different angle We try to look at it as, okay, this is, these are the hundred more kids that we're reaching out to, that we're protecting, that we're providing supportive services to. And that's mainly because we have, we're out there, we're trying to make the community aware of what child abuse and neglect is, what's teen dating violence, what's domestic violence, what's sexual assault.”
Aside from Cepeda, Strand Squared Solutions, LLC owners Russell and Myra Strand also presented “Empathy, Compassion, Vulnerability and Hope—Human Connection is the Key (Trauma Informed Care/Response),” “Human Centric Interviewing,” and “The Body.olgy of Trauma” during the training.
In all around, 70 advocates from Family Court, Drug Court, Karidat Social Services, the Northern Marianas Coalition
Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Department of Public Service, and DYS staff took part in the one-day training.
By Mark Rabago
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