Posttraumatic growth in child sexual abuse survivors: a scoping review protocol

Abstract

Background: Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a severe type of victimization that implies prolonged and devastating traumatization. However, some research suggests that CSA survivors can also experience personal and deep transformation in the aftermath of struggling with the pain and distress derived from the abuse experience, referred to as posttraumatic growth (PTG). This change in terms of beliefs, attitudes and values is self-perceived and improves subjective well-being. The aim of this scoping review is to compile studies about PTG experienced by CSA survivors, offering a wide overview of the main methodologies and findings, and identifying areas for further research on this topic. Method: The review will follow the PRISMA guidelines for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and the five-step process described by Arksey and O’Malley. The databases selected for the search were: Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo, Medline and ProQuest Social Science. Only peer-review studies will be considered for this review, covering qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Studies about PTG in adult CSA survivors will be included in the review. Screening of the studies will be performed independently by two researchers, reading titles and abstracts from all potentially relevant studies. Any possible conflict will be resolved by a third reviewer before the full-text review. After that, two reviewers will complete the data extraction with a tailored data extraction tool. Descriptive and narrative analysis will be performed to show the results of the scoping review. Discussion: Ethical approval is not required. The results will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed article and conference presentations.