Child Sexual Abuse And How It Affects Individuals Later In Life

Abstract

Child sexual abuse is a huge problem in our country. There are growing concerns of how many children are faced with this abuse and the problems that come with it. Child sexual abuse can cause a number of harmful symptoms, all from something that could absolutely be presented. In this study a number of key terms were searched in order to find articles that outlined child sexual abuse and the problems that are brought about. Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar are just a number of search engines that were utilized in order to find information to draw conclusions about the effects of child sexual abuse. In this study, the findings showed that symptoms vary from person to person and demographics may or may not play a role in these symptoms. Evidence also showed that revictimization is also a big problem that arises from child sexual abuse. It was concluded that child sexual abuse usually plays a huge role in the development in individuals and problems later in life. Victims facing abuse are affected in a number of ways, all varying from person to person. Through the study, it was learned that child sexual abuse causes many problems and more research needs to be done to understand how to prevent these problems and effective treatment plans to do so.

Keyword: child sexual abuse, child maltreatment, mental health, physical health, revictimization

Introduction

Child sexual abuse effects one in every nine girls and one in every fifty-three boys. 82% of all victims under 18 are female (Children, n.d.). In fact, every nine minutes child protective services substantiates or finds evidence for, a claim of child sexual abuse (Children, n.d.). Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assault are reports from individuals ages 17 and younger (Children, n.d.). With such a high prevalence of child sexual abuse in our country, a high prevalence of problems from this issue is also a growing problem. The effects of child sexual abuse can be long-lasting and can affect a victim’s physical and mental health. Victims are four times more likely to develop symptoms of drug abuse, four times more likely to experience PTSD as adults, and about three times more likely to experience a major depressive episode (Children, n.d.). Child sexual abuse is the most prevalent health problem children are faced with, with the most serious consequences coming from it (Children, n.d.) The offenders are often people the children know. Research shows that 34% of offenders are family members (Children, n.d.). Offenders usually do not physically look harmful, making it hard for children to know if they are in danger.

Child sexual abuse affects many children. These children are victims to a behavior that is should not happen. These children deserve better and deserve better rights and better preventative strategies. Children are not fully developed, so it is not surprise that going through this type of abuse leads these victims to define themselves from these actions of others. This abuse has a huge impact on how children develop and who they trust. Children do not deserve this type of abuse. Offenders need to be examined even more to determine what lead them to be this way, in hopes that another offender can be identified before it is too late. Children are people too and the number of victims of sexual abuse is astronomical.

Examining effects of child sexual abuse is so important. These actions can help determine what symptoms an individual might face and could explain certain symptoms. If it is learned what to expect after going through situations like so, then individuals can learn what to expect after abuse and access their situation as needed. There is not a definitive fine line of what individuals go through later in life, and that is why it is so important to have a large base line on what to expect to be able to prepare these individuals. There is a greater chance that these symptoms will prevail then they will not, so it is best to know what to expect and factors than can prevent these symptoms.

If we understand the effects later in life, then we can develop strategies to lessen and hopefully erase these symptoms. Treatment options could become available for children early in life to lessen the effects later in life. Symptom management could also play a key role in keep victims safe and hopefully lessen the risk of revictimization. Understanding what victims go through mentally and physically can save other children in the future. The data used here can also be used to predict if these victims will put this abuse on others or harm themselves and others in any other way. Knowing how to identify symptoms and getting treatment when needed could be so beneficial to victims to live a normal life, even after going through this terrible experience. Understanding child sexual abuse and how to affects individuals later in life can stop harmful symptoms and more life-altering events. It is vital this is fully understood in hopes of not letting a horrible scenario shape individual and their futures for the rest of their lives.

Methods

I began my endeavor by getting on Google Scholar. I began by searching child sexual abuse effects. This provided me with about 1,760,000 different results. I began to investigate the first page. I found a lot of interesting articles, but I realized a lot of this literature was published before 2005. I then put a range in on Google scholar to help focus in on my results. I put my range to be 2005-present. When I did this, Google pulled up about 62,900 results, a much smaller number than before. On the first page, the first article that pulled up was more about the prevalence of child sexual abuse, rather than psychological effects. The second piece of work gave me good findings that I used in my review. The third result was again more about prevalence of child sexual abuse in the world, so I had to take that one out. The fourth result gave me much insight to particular disorders that were effects from child sexual abuse, giving me solid information, I could use in my review. The next two results gave me a much broader perspective of child sexual abuse but were very useful to use in finding information to cover the general basics of the effects of this abuse.

With the information I had, I realized I need to focus my search in even further. I decided to help with eliminating results that included short term effects and the actual prevalence of the abuse, I needed to use more specific terms. I continued to use Google Scholar and kept the same date ranges. I, then, searched child sexual abuse long term effects. This pulled up 17,600 results. The first three results were two I had already decided to use and one I had went ahead and excluded. The fourth and fifth results were excellent pieces of writing giving me in-depth information about long-term effects, giving statistics about adults with a past of being sexually assaulted as child and even showed me gender differences between these two groups and the psychiatric disorders each of these groups faced. I believed I got a lot of good research from Google scholar, so I decided to try a different search engine.

Next, I went to PubMed. I began my journey here by using the same key word “child sexual abuse effects.” This pulled up about 2,152 results. I went ahead and focused my search in a filtered everything out that was before 2005. Almost every result had great information but was too specific and gave information about topics that I was not primarily researching. A lot of the results had to do with parenting styles rather than long term psychological effects on the children. I decided I needed to try something new. I searched “child sexual abuse psychological effects.” This gave me 711 results. I, then, filtered out all literature before 2005 leaving me with 466 results. The first five results were hard pieces of evidence but included maternal parenting and violent abuse in their discussions rather than just strictly sexual abuse. The sixth result was excellent evidence showing effects of mental health from the time of sexual abuse into adulthood. The seventh result was how child sexual abuse affected romantic relationships, and while this is very important, it was not exactly what I was looking for. The eighth result was hard evidence that helped me understand child sexual abuse to a specific psychological disorder. With this, I decided I had substantial evidence and information I needed to analyze and review the literature to fully discuss child sexual abuse and the psychological effects that come from it.

I began to read each piece of work and write a short summary and highlighting important pieces of evidence. After I reviewed each piece, I decided to see what common themes and what each piece had in common. From there, I gathered the results and described them in my review. After that I further discussed these results and provided more information from my review. Once the discussion was completed, I went back to write my introduction and then finally my abstract. I found it much easier to summarize my work after it was complete rather than before. Finally, I reviewed my work and made sure it followed all criteria and fully presented everything I learned and investigated through this study. A total of eight articles were reviewed in this study.

Results

Child sexual abuse and the impacts later in life are being studied very recently, about the past 20 years (Maniglio, 2009). There is much controversy about child sexual abuse and the impacts because many times results are variable rather than “consistently negative” (Maniglio, 2009). Demographic factors do not have a consistent pattern as far as symptoms later in life as well (Maniglio, 2009). However, sexual abuse is more prevalent and severe among women (Ullman, 2005). Child sexual abuse has effects on both women and men evidence, so far, has shown women show more symptoms than men when they have experienced severe abuse (Ullman, 2005). It is consistent that women and men show more symptoms if the abuse inflicted on them was from a father figure (Ullman, 2005). The reasons behind symptoms also vary between male and female. Evidence shows that male symptoms has to do with number of incidents, severity of incidents, and other lifestyle factors (Ullman, 2005). However, females’ symptoms are usually explained by physical force, victim-offender relationship, older age at the time of abuse, and other lifetime traumas (Ullman, 2005). Findings also suggest that child sexual abuse and symptoms experienced later in life are related to social and emotional factors, such as social support and lifetime history of mental health conditions (Fuller-Thomson, 2019). Family conflict, emotional insecurity, negative feelings provoked by child sexual abuse shown a strong relationship between child sexual abuse and symptoms observed (Canton-Cortes, 2019). The types of symptoms shown, and the psychological and physical effects differ among different persons.

Three hundred and eighty-four college students were surveyed about their child sexual abuse history (Arata, 2005). The results showed that each person had a higher risker for certain mental and physical health issues (Arata, 2005). This study also took into account different types of abuse to understand the whole of child maltreatment (Arata, 2005). Evidence shows that victims of child sex abuse are more likely to experience low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, drug and alcohol use, and PTSD (Lalor, 2010). Survivors of child sexual abuse are also more likely to have multiple sex partners, become pregnant as teenagers, and experience sexual assault as adults (Lalor, 2010). Revictimization of individuals may be due to traumatic sexualization, betrayal, powerlessness, and stigmatization (Filipas, 2006). The relationship among victim and offender sets the stage for the child’s beliefs about themselves (Filipas, 2006). Adults face powerlessness because as a child they may not have been able to stop the abuse and they learn to accept what is being done to them (Filipas, 2006).

Revictimization plays a powerful role in victims experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and problem drinking (Najdowski, 2009). Victims who reported dissociating during abuse have more PTSD symptoms than victims who do not (Filipas, 2006). Due to this, survivors may detach from their surroundings and increasing their risk of revictimization. (Filipas, 2006). Findings show that victims with more than one occasion of revictimization had more PTSD symptoms than victims only reporting one incident (Filipas, 2006). Problem drinking is associated with PTSD by either victims drinking to cope with PTSD symptoms or drinking bringing on PTSD symptoms (Najdowski, 2009). Numbing these symptoms by drinking has shown that victims are not able to recognize risk and make them more likely to be revictimized (Najdowski, 2009). Victims who experience adult and child sexual abuse reported having more arousal, re-experiencing, and avoidance symptoms (Najdowski, 2009). These symptoms predicted greater problem drinking and increasing likelihood of revictimization (Najdowski, 2009). Victims who have experienced more victimizations are more likely to have symptoms of PTSD and problem drinking (Najdowski, 2009). All in all, victims usually face some sort of mental and physical health symptoms, but the severity and the likelihood vary from person to person (Maniglio, 2009).

Discussion

The results show a much greater risk for individuals that are victims of child sexual abuse to face symptoms later in life. However, the results were not consistent person to person and varied among demographics and prevalence of the abuse. All in all, victims are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, PTSD, and drug and alcohol abuse rather than people who have not become victims of child sexual abuse. Revictimization is also a big problem within this population and victims are more likely to become revictimized later in life. The results show that gender does not play a role in the symptoms experienced, but gender could explain what brings on these symptoms. The results also showed a wide correlation that symptoms and severity of symptoms vary person to person. The results showed that there is not strong, consistent date on what each victim will experience.

Based on these findings, recommendations could be made on how to help these victims. The results showed that victims were more likely to be revictimized due to coping strategies and symptoms brought on by the sexual abuse. Help needs to be brought their way in a more fierce and effective way. Treatment should be available for these victims, especially at a younger level. Children judge themselves and get a picture of themselves based on the abuse they go through. The findings conclude that these experiences and this self-image can have catastrophic effects for victims later in their life. It is recommended that these experiences and what these children are going through should be brought to light and allow these individuals to come to turn with this. It is also recommended that child sexual abuse should be talked about more freely, so that children are able to come forth and be more confident telling someone they trust what they are going through. Communication and treatment should be more widely used among victims of sexual abuse, especially to children when they are experiencing or have already experienced this abuse. This could be effective for individuals later in life and stop mental and physical health issues.

The literature is missing the effects treatment has on victims of child sexual abuse. The literature tries to explain what schools and other organizations are trying to do to help victims cope with this abuse, but no evidence is really shown if these approaches are working. The literature is also missing the likelihood of victims of child sexual abuse to become abusers themselves. Throughout the literature, most findings were shown on the victims mental and physical health and not the effects it could have on future behaviors. The literature is missing what happens to these victims who never come to terms with their abuse and the violence and abuse they inflict on others.

Research needs to be done on the effectiveness of treatment. Victims who have gone through treatment need to be compared to victims who have not gone through treatment and the prevalence of their symptoms. It is vital to know if treatment is working because, if not, another approach needs to be put in place. If the treatments are working, then they need to be made a universal thing and widely used in hopes to help people and prevent symptoms in victims later in life. Victims might have very different symptoms but researching what does and does not work through treatment could be a breakthrough and help ease what the victims have to go through. Research should also be done in children and how treatment at a young age had an effect on symptoms later in life. Research also needs to be done in sex offenders and their history. This research needs to be done to understand the likelihood of child sexual abuse victims to abuse others. This could explain other symptoms victims face and also show a problem that needs to be fixed. This research could be a breakthrough to understand more of the psychological effect’s victims go through and why they decide to inflict abuse on others. Future research needs to be done on these issues to hopefully help victims and decrease the likelihood of sexual abuse across the board.

References

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