Research Launch: Mental Health and Child Sexual Exploitation

Children who feel unseen, unsupported, and alone are more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. And when exploitation occurs, it leaves deep emotional wounds that, without support, increase the risk of further harm. This is the cycle the MEND project set out to understand, and to help break.

Today, Terre des Hommes Netherlands publishes two new resources from the Mental Health and Exploitation: New Directions (MEND) project, bringing together evidence on the relationship between children’s emotional wellbeing and child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSEA).

Caught in the Cycle presents findings from qualitative research conducted with children, caregivers, and frontline workers across Kenya, Nigeria, India, and the Philippines. Drawing on the voices of 147 children and young people, 104 caregivers, and 46 key informant interviews, the report maps how emotional distress, family stress, poverty, gender norms, and weak protection systems interact to create pathways into exploitation, and what can interrupt that cycle.

Building Blocks for Prevention complements these findings with a synthesis of promising mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions for CSEA. It examines four multi-level approaches spanning prevention to response, identifies critical success factors, and offers practical guidance for organisations developing or strengthening MHPSS programming.

Together, these publications make the case that mental health and child protection cannot be treated as separate concerns. Emotional wellbeing shapes vulnerability, disclosure, and recovery. Integrating MHPSS into CSEA prevention and response is not an optional add-on: it is foundational to effective, child-centred protection.

We invite researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and donors to read, share, and act on these findings.