Young Women's Social and Occupational Development and Mental Health in the Aftermath of Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract

We examined social role functioning and depressive symptoms of young adults who were abused as children in data from a longitudinal community sample. Sexually abused women and men were more depressed during their senior year of high school, and this difference was more pronounced 2 years later. We then examined a mediational model to determine whether social functioning explained the course of depressive symptoms over this transitional period. Focusing only on young women, for whom the prevalence of abuse was much higher, results indicated that two-thirds of the effect of abuse on depressive symptoms was explained by experiences and choices in the domains of work, education and intimate relationships. Having less supportive intimate relationships and lower rates of attendance at 4-year colleges were particularly important. Findings reveal the key role played by early adult interpersonal and occupational development in perpetuating the mental health impact of childhood trauma.

The Phenomenon of Comparative Development Between Female Survivors and Their Partners: Implications for Couples Therapy

“…The female participants in this study were all survivors of CSA, with some differences in the type of abuse (Table 1). Similar to previous research studies, these participants showed varying difficulties in their current developmental stages such as low self-esteem (Jumpar 1995), interpersonal difficulties (Davisa and Petretic-Jackson 2000), substance abuse (Brems et al 2004), depression (Schilling et al 2007), and anxiety (Neumann et al 1996).…”

Cumulative Sexual Victimization and Mental Health Outcomes Among Incarcerated Women

“…If sexual trauma is a strain that leads some women on a pathway to prison (Owen, 1998;Sharp, 2014), then intervention and treatment may help to prevent future offending (Bloom, Owen & Covington, 2004;Covington, 2003). Perhaps, high schools or middle schools could offer some type of support to girls who have been victimized to prevent strains that may lead to future victimization and other negative outcomes that stem from experiencing sexual trauma (Schilling & Aseltine, 2007).…”

Transition to adulthood of child sexual abuse victims

“…Others, among which the only prospective study, did find a small effect (Anda et al, 2001;Noll et al, 2009;Roberts et al, 2004;Schilling et al, 2007;Woodward, Fergusson, & Horwood, 2001) to a medium effect (Friesen et al, 2010;Mullen et al, 1994). In addition, for the age period of 18 to 21 years Van Roode et al (2009) found a medium relationship between CSA and unintended or undesired pregnancies for both males and females.…”