Professionals' perspectives of grooming

This dataset and these outputs refer to a study which aimed to evaluate the knowledge, the perceptions, and the training needs regarding online sexual grooming in a sample of professionals who work with children and adolescents in Portugal. A total of 161 professionals participated in the study, of which 72 (45%) were teachers, 52 (32%) were child protection professionals and 37 (23%) were psychologists. This study used an exploratory and quantitative methodology. An online questionnaire was developed considering previous literature and the goals of this research. In order to maximize the advantages of the exploratory methodology and the flexibility offered by the online questionnaire, open-ended questions were included. The main conclusion from this research is that professionals are motivated to prevent online sexual grooming, and that, if they receive an adequate evidence-based training, they may be essential first-responders in sexual abuse cases.