Psychological sequelae of childhood sexual abuse: abuse-related characteristics, coping strategies, and attributional style

Steel, Jennifer L.; Sanna, Lawrence J.; Hammond, Barbara; Whipple, James B.; Cross, Herbert J.

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2003.12.004

Cited by 125 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In addition, sexually abused participants were twice as likely to have ever self-harmed and to have seriously thought about suicide and attempted suicide. There is an established body of literature that links sexual abuse with suicidality and mental health issues in adult life both among Aboriginal people (Brant, 1994;Elias & Greyeyes, 1999;Grossman, Miligan, & Deyo, 1991;Robin, Chester, Rasmussen, Jaranson, & Goldman, 1997b) and non-Aboriginal people (Steel, Sanna, Hammond, Whipple, & Cross, 2004). However, in Canada rates of suicide among young Aboriginal people are over four times higher than among non-Aboriginal people (Health Canada, 2003) and are often attributed to vast social and economic disparities and intergenerational trauma.…”

Section: Sexual Abuse and Vulnerability To Hiv Infectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cedar Project: Historical trauma, sexual abuse and HIV risk among young Aboriginal people who use injection and non-injection drugs in two Canadian cities

Pearce

Christian²,

Patterson³

et al. 2008

Social Science & Medicine

113

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Recent Indigenist scholarship has situated high rates of traumatic life experiences, including sexual abuse, among Indigenous peoples of North America within the larger context of their status as colonized peoples. Sexual abuse has been linked to many negative health outcomes including mental, sexual and drug-related vulnerabilities. There is a paucity of research in Canada addressing the relationship between antecedent sexual abuse and negative health outcomes among Aboriginal people including elevated risk of HIV infection. The primary objectives of this study were to determine factors associated with sexual abuse among participants of the Cedar Project, a cohort of young Aboriginal people between the ages of 14 and 30 years who use injection and non-injection drugs in two urban centres in British Columbia, Canada; and to locate findings through a lens of historical and intergenerational trauma. We utilized post-colonial perspectives in research design, problem formulation and the interpretation of results. Multivariate modeling was used to determine the extent to which a history of sexual abuse was predictive of negative health

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Section: Sexual Abuse and Vulnerability To Hiv Infectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cedar Project: Historical trauma, sexual abuse and HIV risk among young Aboriginal people who use injection and non-injection drugs in two Canadian cities

Pearce

Christian²,

Patterson³

et al. 2008

Social Science & Medicine

113

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“…Few studies have considered the relation between abuse severity and abuse-specific attributions, and the findings are inconsistent. More abuse-specific self-blame was associated with severity of CSA in adults, but perpetrator-blame was not assessed (Coffey et al, 1996;Steel, Sanna, Hammond, Whipple, & Cross, 2004). No relation was found between self-ratings of severity and self-or perpetratorblame in adolescent victims of CSA, although this may have been due to consistently high severity ratings across all CSA participants (McGee et al, 2001).…”

Section: Abuse Severity and Abuse-specific Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood sexual abuse and abuse-specific attributions of blame over 6 years following discovery

Feiring

Cleland

2007

Child Abuse & Neglect

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Objective-The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of change in attributions for childhood sexual abuse (CSA) over a 6-year period and whether such patterns were related to abuse severity, age, gender, and subsequent symptoms of depression and PTSD.Methodology-One-hundred and sixty children, 8-15 years old, were interviewed within 8 weeks of the time the CSA was reported to child protective services (i.e., the time of abuse discovery). Follow-up interviews were conducted 1-year later on 147, and 6 years later on 121 of the original participants. Abuse-specific attributions were obtained using two methods. Participants first responded to an open-ended interview question about why they believed the CSA had happened to them and then completed a rating scale about the extent to which possible attributions for the CSA applied to them (e.g., "Because I was not smart enough").Results-Over time, perpetrator-blame attributions were consistently more common than selfblame attributions for CSA (using both interview and rating measures). Youth were more likely to report self-blame attributions on the rating measure than the open-ended interview question. The interview method indicated that youth often felt confused about why the abuse happened up to a year following discovery but this response diminished by the third assessment. On average, ratings of perpetrator-blame attribution remained high over time (p<.05), whereas ratings of self-blame decreased (p<.01). Penetration was related to more self-blame (p<.05) and less perpetrator-blame (p<.05), and the use of force was related to more perpetrator-blame. The initial level of self-blame attribution ratings predicted subsequent symptoms of depression (p<.05) and intrusive experiences (p<.05) after controlling for age at abuse discovery, gender, and self-blame attributions for common events. Perpetrator-blame attributions were not related to symptoms.Conclusions-The findings of this study suggest that assessing responses to open-ended interview questions about the perceived reasons for the abuse and ratings of attributions are important for understanding how youth make sense of their abuse. Abuse-specific self-blame attributions at abuse discovery have a persistent effect on internalizing symptoms and should be assessed and the target of treatment as soon as possible after CSA has been reported to the authorities.

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“…Em que pese a unanimidade dos autores sobre as repercussões que o abuso sexual e outros tipos de violência determinem na saúde mental (Zavaschi et al, 2002;Arboleda-Flórez e Wade, 2001;Meyerson et al, 2002;Molnar et al, 2001;Conway et al, 2004;Hill et al, 2001;Sharma e Gupta, 2004;Steel et al, 2004;Peleikis et al, 2004;Queiroz, 2003;Grande et al, 2003;Kisiel e Lyons, 2001;Haj-Yahia e Tamish, 2001;Macfie et al, 2001;Ystgaard et al, 2004;Roelofs et al, 2002;Roberts et al, 2004), além da predisposição para um comportamento delinqüente (Gover e MacKenzie, 2003;Craissati et al, 2002;Radosh, 2002;Lindsay et al, 2001;Swanston et al, 2003;Sharma, 2003;White e Smith, 2004), seja em idade adulta (Aylwin et al, 2003) ou na juventude, não há consenso a respeito da idéia de que a criança vítima de violência será um adulto violento, capaz de práticas abusivas (Craissati et al, 2002). O abuso sexual na infância é considerado também como fator de risco para a vitimização na idade adulta (Messman-Moore e Brown, 2004; Surrat et al, 2004;Polanczyk et al, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

“…As seqüelas poderão variar quando relacionadas ao tipo de abuso: número de agressores, duração, relação com agressor, resistência, emprego de força, idade em que se iniciou, participação e freqüência do abuso (Steel et al, 2004). O abuso sexual aumenta o risco de suas vítimas desenvolverem transtorno de estresse pós-traumático (PTSD) e apresentarem comportamentos autodestrutivos.…”

Section: Revisão Da Literaturaunclassified

Abuso sexual em crianças e adolescentes: revisão de 100 anos de literatura

Aded¹,

Dalcin²,

Moraes³

et al. 2006

Rev. psiquiatr. clín.

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Psychological sequelae of childhood sexual abuse: abuse-related characteristics, coping strategies, and attributional style

Cited by 125 publications

References 46 publications

The Cedar Project: Historical trauma, sexual abuse and HIV risk among young Aboriginal people who use injection and non-injection drugs in two Canadian cities

The Cedar Project: Historical trauma, sexual abuse and HIV risk among young Aboriginal people who use injection and non-injection drugs in two Canadian cities

Childhood sexual abuse and abuse-specific attributions of blame over 6 years following discovery

Abuso sexual em crianças e adolescentes: revisão de 100 anos de literatura

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