The Hackett continuum revised: a developmentally and contextually informed framework for children’s sexual behaviour

Since its introduction in 2010, the Continuum of Sexual Behaviour in Childhood has become widely used in harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) policy and practice. However, its uptake has also exposed limitations in interpretation, including use as an assessment tool, treatment of strands as fixed or sequential, and misapplication to victim-survivor experiences. This paper presents a revised Hackett Continuum for children’s sexual behaviours, with children defined as all persons under 18 years. The revision updates the language and constructs of the original model, links five descriptive strands to three overarching categories – developmentally expected sexual behaviour, problematic sexual behaviour and HSB – and applies to both in-person and digitally mediated behaviours. The revised Continuum is presented as a developmental and contextual heuristic to support proportionate professional judgement, clarify conceptual boundaries, address definitional drift and align the model with contemporary understandings of children’s developmental, relational and ecological contexts.PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT This paper offers practitioners an updated Continuum to support initial decision-making about children’s sexual behaviours. The revised model helps differentiate developmentally expected, problematic and harmful sexual behaviours, supporting proportionate, contextually informed responses and clearer communication with children, families and professionals.