To assess current psychological functioning, participants were administered the Derogatis Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, the Modified Fear Survey, and the Impact of Event Scale. Results indicated that childhood sexual abuse victims could be distinguished from nonvictims by a pattern of elevated anxiety, heightened interpersonal sensitivity, increased anger problems, more paranoid ideation, and increased obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The age at which sexual assault took place was related to current adult functioning, with women assaulted in adolescence displaying greater elevations in hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anxiety, and paranoid ideation than nonvictims. Women sexually abused early in childhood displayed only elevated anxiety as adults, although they also showed significantly more psychological symptoms on a global mental health measure than did nonvictims. Revictimization was strongly related to increased symptomatology. 33 references and 6 tables. (Author abstract modified)
Current Psychological Functioning of Child Sexual Assault Survivors: A Community Study
NCJ Number
111604
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1988) Pages: 55-79
Date Published
1988
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Interviews were conducted in South Carolina with a community sample of 391 women to obtain a thorough history of lifetime victimization experiences, including experiences such as childhood and adult sexual assault, robbery, and burglary.
Abstract
Date Published: January 1, 1988