Consequences of Child and Adult Sexual and Physical Trauma among Deaf Adults

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the consequences of sexual and physical trauma among a sample of deaf adults. Thirty-two men and 45 women completed the Life Event Checklist (LEC), the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI), the Somatoform Dissociation and a sociodemographic questionnaire. In this sample, 40.6% of the male participants and 53.3% of the female participants had experienced some type of sexual trauma during their lifetimes. Physical trauma was reported by 75% of males and 71.1% of female participants. For those who had experienced childhood sexual trauma, the odds ratio of revictimization in adulthood was 6.69. Sexual trauma also rarely occurred by itself. Two thirds of all participants with sexual trauma histories also reported some type of physical abuse. Participants with sexual trauma histories displayed significantly more symptoms of PTSD and depression than people without such trauma history. Physical and sexual abuse represent significant problems in the deaf community. The authors include a call for the development of targeted intervention attempts to prevent further victimization in deaf child and adolescent populations.Data from the world literature suggests that deaf individuals experience higher rates of sexual and physical trauma than their hearing counterparts (Bisol, Sperb, Brewer, Kato, & Shor-Posner, 2008;Kvam, 2004). Among a sample of 92 Brazilian students (42 deaf and 50 hearing students) between

Sexual Abuse of Children With Disabilities: Key Lessons and Future Directions Based on a Scoping Review

“…First, some studies provided accessible measures according to the type of disability. For example, studies conducted among deaf people included questionnaires translated into sign language (Kvam, 2004; Schild & Dalenberg, 2015) and video recordings, including instructions provided in sign language (Kvam, 2004). Moreover, different strategies were used in studies among people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to enhance their understanding of the questionnaires.…”

“…In the first, Schenkel et al (2014) found that child maltreatment (including sexual abuse) was a significant predictor of re-abuse, an effect that was much stronger among deaf and hard of hearing children. In the second study, Schild and Dalenberg (2015) found an association between a history of CSA in deaf children and sexual as well as physical trauma in adulthood. In addition, one study associated the sexual abuse of children with intellectual disabilities with the experience of intimate partner violence as adults (Catani & Sossalla, 2015).…”

“…Fewer studies examined CSA rates within a sample of people with disabilities compared to the general population (e.g., Euser et al, 2016;Kvam, 2004). Alternatively, studies with samples of only individuals with disabilities examined the prevalence of CSA alongside CSA in relation to different demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, type and level of disability, and ethnicity; e.g., Balogh et al, 2001;Mandell et al, 2005) and consequences (e.g., Mandell et al, 2005;McGaw et al, 2007;Schild & Dalenberg, 2015).…”

Traumatization and Trauma Cases: Childhood Adversity and Deafness

“…Often the ability to reach health-care is restricted due to the difficulty of communication, which sometimes increases the risk of these persons to get the wrong diagnosis or being maltreated. In one of the first large-scale trauma studies with the Deaf community, the California Deaf Trauma Study [41][42][43] discuss the result of hearing loss as having psychosocial consequences and suggest that the term information deprivation trauma (IDT) to describe this. IDT is a concept that requires a negative emotional response that is characterized by "(a) A lack of understanding of the extent, magnitude, consequences, and probability of a current or impending meaningful event; and (b) An inability to access information about this event that would reasonably allow a person to prepare, appropriately respond, or self-protect" [43].…”

Information Deprivation Trauma: Definition, Assessment, and Interventions

“…During one of the first large-scale trauma studies with the Deaf community, the California Deaf Trauma Study (Schild, 2007;Schild & Dalenberg, 2012a, 2012b, 2015, a common theme emerged that has not yet been adequately addressed in the trauma literature: information deprivation trauma (IDT). The purpose of this article is to expand on our brief introduction of IDT (see Schild & Dalenberg, 2012b) and to provide a more in-depth analysis of the concept, explore various examples in both hearing and deaf samples, and discuss assessment issues.…”