Impact of Trauma due to Sexual Violence on Psychopathology and Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Objectives：This study was conducted in order to investigate the influence of sexual trauma on the psychopathology and quality of life of children and adolescents in Korea.Methods：Twenty-seven children and adolescents and their caretakers who visited the Kangwon Sunflower Center participated in a cross-sectional study. Participants completed the Korean version of Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and SchizophreniaPresent and Lifetime Version, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and Child Health Questionnaire-Parent Form-50 (CHQ-PF-50). Their scores were compared with those of a age and sex-matched control group of 27 healthy children and adolescents.Results：Victims of sexual violence showed higher t score in Withdrawn, Social problems, Delinquent behavior, Externalizing problems, and Total problems in CBCL, compared with control group. In CHQ-PF-50, there were lower scores on Bodily pain/ discomfort, Behavior, Mental health, Time impact in parents, and Family activities subscales in victims of sexual violence. While Behavior and Family activities subscale showed negative correlations with Delinquent behavior, Externalizing problems, and Total problems in CBCL. Mental health subscale showed negative correlations with Social problems, Delinquent behavior, Externalizing problems, and Total problems. In addition, Time impact on parent subscale showed a negative association with Delinquent behavior in CBCL.Conclusion：The current study provided evidence suggesting that victims of sexual violence had a higher level of psychopathology and lower level of quality of life.KEY WORDS：Sexual ViolenceㆍPsychopathologyㆍQuality of LifeㆍChildㆍAdolescent.

Psychological aftereffects experienced by sexually abused children: Psychopathological characteristics revealed by the K-CBCL

“…Therefore, sexually abused children had significantly higher scores for internalization, total problem behavior, anxiety/depression, externalization, withdrawal/depression (withdrawn), attention problems, thought problems, social immaturity, somatic symptoms, aggressive behavior, rule-breaking behavior (delinquency), and other problems than those in the control group. These findings were partially consistent with the results of previous studies, [ 17 , 18 , 22 ] which suggested that sexually abused children reported various psychopathologies, which included psychological distress, compared with non-abused children. Furthermore, the K-CBCL could effectively assess them.…”

“…Only few compared the CBCL scores of victims of sexual violence with those of control groups. Kim et al [ 17 ] compared the CBCL scale results of 27 sexually abused children and adolescents who visited a local Sunflower Center (Sexual Violence Victims Integrated Support Center) and 27 control participants and found that the victims of sexual abuse showed significantly higher T-scores in withdrawal, social problems, delinquency, externalizing problems, and total problem behavior scales than the control group. They also had a statistical trend toward higher scores on the anxiety/depression and attention problems scales than did the control group.…”