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Childhood Sexual Abuse Affects Mental Health Into Adulthood

Gisselle Ortega

San Francisco State University

Child and Adolescent Development

CAD 500 GWAR

Dr. Lizzie Babalola

December 9, 2022
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Abstract

Research indicates that childhood sexual abuse can cause severe trauma.It was

hypothesized that being abused as a child can lead to different types of mental health illnesses

and affect adulthood.These problems include depression, self-esteem, and revictimization.

Participants of the study conducted three different surveys that analyzed and compare abused and

non abused victims of child abuse to see the impact the trauma can have after the years have

passed.
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Re

Literature Review

Child sexual abuse can become a very hard situation to overcome and it reflects in

people’s lives when they become adults. There is no easy process to relieve any trauma, yet there

are ways people can manage to heal. This literature review reviews how being sexually abused at

an early age affects their mental health into adulthood. The common themes in the researched

articles are that sexual abuse can affect ones mental health, self esteem, and depression (Briere

1992), we can also not exclude men from also experiencing some type of sexual abuse (Collings

1995), and parents are a good resource to help children prevent abuse and cope with the trauma

(Fayaz 2019). Psychological development are changes that occur to someone during time. Being

sexually abused at an early age can impact how you grow and how you reflect yourself to others.

Caring about your mental health is a pilar into having a healthy mindset. Being abuse can haunt

victims for a long period of time and that means having constant feelings of shame, guilt, fear,

and many more. Living through this can lead to a severe depression or a roller coaster of

emotions. Anger for example as stated in one of the articles, “CSA victims were significantly

more likely than nonabused controls to report fear of men, anxiety attacks, and problems with

anger” (Briere 1992) is also present when dealing with sexual abuse trauma. Self esteem relates

to the mental health aspect, since not feeling good emotionally can also reflect on how you

manage yourself and your confidence.

Depression is another main source of how a victim of child abuse’s psychological

development can be affected. According to the study of long term effects of child sexual abuse,

depression is severe in women who experience such trauma. In their study, they compared

numbers of major depression with women who were nonabused versus abused. The numbers
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turned out higher compared to those who were abused. Depression can also lead to suicidal

thoughts and suicide itself (Fayaz 2019), which makes the effects even more delicate and

important.

In some of the articles, I found interesting that they made present to portray that men also

suffer from psychological development because they can also be abused at an early age. We are

used to only hearing women testimonies and the feminists movement that we can forget about

the fact that men can be victims too. Men are also being abused from being involved in an

unwanted sexual experience before the age of 18. (Collings 1995).Some of their disturbance goes

along sexual functioning rather than psychological, but that does not mean they cannot

experience that.

Being sexually abused is a serious problem and in order to prevent it parents have to

discuss this with their children for them to watch out for any signs that will lead to being

sexually abuse. If parents are more informed about the warning signs and precautions they can

take, it will be less likely for a child to be sexually abused. Adults should also learn about the

boundaries when interacting with children to avoid any misunderstandings. An idea to have more

social awareness is to bring workshops to schools about child sexual prevention to teach parents

more about this topic. If a child is going through a healing process, the parents should also be

addressed in order for them to care for their child after a traumatic event. It is not an easy

situation to overcome and a child will need additional support outside of any counseling or

therapy session.

Some limitations to the study are that some participants may not recall the specific events

that happened in their life. If we want to consider interviews, it may be difficult to get accurate

results and details about the situation. Therefore, the results may not be accurate in that sense.
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Also, some topics are difficult to address and if someone is still affected by the trauma, then their

well being may be in jeopardy since we are bringing harsh events from the past. People will be

given options to stop at any time of the study if necessary and that will not affect the

compensation that is given for the study.

If we keep progressing in the world with all sorts of movements and ideas, then child

sexual abuse should be a topic we have to work on too. It leads to many different psychological

problems such as mental health disorders that affect how we interact with others. Men can go

through being sexually abused as a child too, therefore we should also consider that they can also

be victims of such act and involve them into this topic. Prevention programs are a great way to

create awareness and have children live a safe childhood with the support of their parents.

Clearly, there is a lot involved in how a child can be affected when being sexually abused, but

we can also find ways to prevent it in order for them to not experience this.
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Participants and Recruiting Plan

In this study, we wanted participants who had a history of being abused as a child. In order to see

differences in adults that were abused as a child, we also needed participants who were not

abused to compare them. This will allow us to see any differences between those who were and

those who we not. We informed our local university that a study was conducted to see the mental

health illness in adults. Therefore, a stipend was going to be given at the end of the study to keep

them interested in the study.

To start and recruit them, we went to the university to give a presentation about mental

health. We put flyers all over the school with the day and time to attend. More than 300 people

attended. We went into detail about how a student should prioritize their mental health and what

are some ways they can maintain themselves healthy. At the end of the presentation, the study

was presented including the stipend that would be given out at the end of the study. People

signed up for more information and received an email to complete their information and address

any questions that came up.

To finish the study, it took about a year to complete the 3 part surveys. Some of the

participants were excluded from the study because not all parts were completed. The surveys

were sent via email to avoid any timely conflicts and were submitted through a database that will

calculate the results. After completion of the study, their compensations were distributed by

direct deposit.
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Methods

Overview of Study and Design

Research Question & Hypothesis

In this study, we will try to discover the mental health effects of being sexually abused as

child. It definitely impacts adulthood after a long period of time. Therefore, research will be

conducted to analyze how mental health impacts how they develop into their adulthood stage

after such trauma.

Overview of Research Design

This study will be conducted as descriptive, for we will interview adults who were

victims as a child for sexual abuse. In order to identify the effects, a survey will be conducted to

better understand how they have felt throughout the years. Their natural behaviors are very

important for this research because we want to observe how this life event had impacted their

well being in the long run. Nevertheless, the results obtained from this research will be presented

as patterns gathered from the information provided by the participants.

Measurement

Data Collection Methods

We will be collecting data based on their experiences. Qualitative data is the best fit in this study

because we will be using first hand experiences based on the interviews. The interviews will be

testimonies from the victims of C.S.A. (child sexual abuse) and how they coped with the trauma

and what situations they had to go through. The surveys collected with questions about their

mental health stages are a way for the study to gather information and to see what types of

mental health topics are being present.

Operationalizing Variables
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Since this topic is descriptive, the participants will be presenting their experiences and any

information related to the aftermath of being sexually abused. The variables, in this case the

mental health disorders that each participant experienced, are then evaluated to determine the top

5 main common mental health disorders. We will then compare them to the adult life they have

now and if their mental health disorder has impacted to the adult they are now.

Instruments & Measures

Depression

In an interview of personal and family history, 248 women from Los Angeles participated

in a survey. 50 of them were African American and 69 were white women (Peters, 1988). It

resulted in women who have not experienced child sexual abuse (CSA) to show less depressive

symptoms than those who had. Women who were abused as a child experienced major

depressive episodes that involved treatment in the long run. Compared to controlled variables,

those who did not experience CSA, in a sample of college women (Sedney & Brooks, 1984)

those who did go through that trauma had a higher rate of depression and thoughts of self-harm.

The “Beck and Depression Inventory” led to 103 women consider themselves with a very low

self-esteem and more depression. Because of the big gap in time from when the sexual event

happened to when the study is conducted, we can say that it led to some negative findings that

might have been related to other events in life from these women and not necessarily because of

the abuse. Yet, the information provided concluded that C.S.A. has some type of relation with

depression.

Suicide

CSA is also related to suicide (Briere & Runtz, 1986). Based on the crisis counseling

hotline for suicide, 56% of women called because they had a history of CSA compared to those
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23% of women who did not experienced it. Flashbacks, family credibility, and physical

resistance were common factors that women with CSA related to. Those who did not were

related to family problems that were not really relevant to this study. Concurrent physical and

sexual abuse in childhood appears to be related to suicidal thoughts amongst women.

Revictimization

In the interview portion about sexual abuse victims by Russell, 65% of women were

victims of CSA and 36% of non-abused adults were involved in attempted rape. Some of these

women were also involved in prostitution, where they blamed CSA for the following actions.

Child sexual abuse impacts the self-esteem, therefore some women in the study were prominent

to letting themselves be abused and controlled by men because their sense of personal value and

empowerment are not part of what they believe. With this in mind, they start to feel worthless

and self-blame themselves for the things that happened and which they had no control over.

Self-reports and Other-report.

To conduct this study,222 psychology students, whom were male and female.,

participated from a university. A stipend was provided for every survey completed. Because 35

of the participants did not complete the whole survey, they were discarded from the research.25

of the participants were female and 62 were male (Aldulrehman & De Luca, 2001). Since the

study was conducted in a University, then these young adults were going to be able to recall what

happened compared to a middle-aged adult. Three scales were conducted over the one year

period study.

Social Health Battery

The social health battery consists of a self report scale that provides the level of social

resources and social interactions. The scale helps to view the social behavior amongst family
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members, friends, the people that surround them. The answers to the questions in the scale were

provided and they would chose the response that most related to them

The Social Dysfunction Rating Scale

A Likert scale was used for The Social Dtysfunctioning Rating Scale. 21 questions were

used to assess the negative aspects of an individuals social judgement. This consists of

participants feeling discontent, unhappiness, and negative self regard attitudes. When everything

was completed, a mean score was taken to calculate if the social dysfunction score was high or

low.

Sexual Victimization Survey

In this survey, the first of it recorded the demographics of the participants in the sample.

It was based on Finkelhor (1997) Sexual Victimization Survey. The second part of it consists of

the existence of child hood sexual experiences, the extend and duration of the abuse experience,

the age it occurred, if it was forced, and the age of the perpetuator if known. The survey

consisted of open ended and choice questions in order for them to explain in detail what

happened and what they remember and any feeling they felt throughout the event. .

Procedures

Students in introductory psychology who were interested in participating in this study were told

that its objective was to determine the connection between childhood sexual abuse and adult

social behavior. Because some people who suffered sexual abuse as kids might not have

recognized the encounter as abusive, the phrase "sexual experience" was used instead of "sexual

abuse" (Finkelhor, 1997). At the time of recruitment and scale completion, students were

informed that the information they supplied was confidential and would be handled in an

appropriate way. The children were also kept informed that participation was optional and that
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they might stop at any point without facing any consequences. Participants in the experiment

received the three scales to complete and the questionnaires to fill out independently with much

detail.

Ethics

Some ethical concerns in this research are not keeping the information confidential. Sexual abuse

is a delicate topic itself, involving adults that talk about child experiences is even harder.

Keeping their confidentiality is very important because morally, they are still trying to heal from

this process and it would not be ethical to share any type of information related to an abuse.

Having resources for this victims is very important to “solve” any trauma they need to heal from.

After every session, we made sure to provide links and resources for them to use if anything ever

felt like it was too much to answer. All of the surveys were conducted without a name to make

sure we did not know who it was from. It helped us be unbiased and to avoid discriminating

based on gender. Since we did talk about the past and a very intense topic, memories were

definitely brought back. We made it clear that if they needed to take a break or stop completely it

would be fine because our priority is always to make sure our participants feel safe and

comfortable.
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Results and Discussion

Proposed Analysis Methods

Most certainly, people that have been sexually abused as a child had some sort of impact

in their adulthood because of it. The surveys allowed us to determine what kind of outcomes that

might be and how they felt throughout this time. Mental health illnesses were the big take away

of this research. It is know that being sexually abused can impact how the victims feel and how

they portray themselves. Sometimes feeling fearful, disoriented, and helpless. (M. Fiona &

Lodrick, Z., 2013). But our goal was to discover what are the mental health illnesses related to

the trauma and the impact it has into their adulthood. In order to analyze that, the qualitative

analysis was derived from charting the different results into a table. There were groups

identified, such as abused, non abused, women, and man to compare the results from the surveys

to one another. A mean was taken out of each survey comparing the answers of the participants

and the rating scale. Inferential statistics were formulated to compare each survey.

Anticipated Results

Out of the people participating in the study, forty-nine out of 187 participants were

victims of child sexual abuse. This means that almost one- forth of the participants had a

traumatic experience as a child. To conduct a factorial design, a Mann-Whitney U test was used

for the study to calculate the Social Health Battery and the Social Dysfunction Rating scale

answers. There were some sub topics labeled like self-system, interpersonal-system, and

performance-system for the Social Dysfunction rating scale. Major differences were found

between abused and non-abused groups with the Social Dysfunction Rating Scale,

(Abdulrehman, R. & De Luca, R, 2001).

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Non-abused participants scored a lower number on the social dysfunction category than

abused participants. On the self-system sub-scale of the Social Dysfunction rating Scale, again

non-abused participants scored lower than those who were victims of child abuse. Similar

results were obtained in the performance-system sub-scale. Between genders, the Social

Dysfunction Rating Scale did not affect in that sense. There was no difference noted. Yet the in

the Social Health aspect, women scored higher than men.

Significance of Research & Contributions to Field

The results supported the hypothesis to the research. In fact, the participants that had

experienced child sexual abuse suffered from social functioning as adults. This is due to all the

trauma after such experience. Abused participants had higher levels of social dysfunction that

non-abused participants according to the Social Dysfunction Rating Scale. The three main topics

found in this research is that depression, suicide and revictimization are a big part into a

developing adult. People who are not abused can also experience these types of mental health,

yet the number is higher when victims of child abuse experience it.

Depression takes place when the victim does not feel they have the support from their

family members to get help. They believe it is better to stay quiet and do nothing about it.

Carrying all this burden starts to become a heavy weight and negative and suicidal thoughts start

to be present in them. Nevertheless, their self-esteem starts to diminish and they have problems

liking and loving themselves. When they lose this, nothing seems right or enough to them and

their thoughts start to eat them up until they cannot resist to live anymore.

Therefore, suicidal thoughts start to carry on their life. Feelings as if everything is

hopeless and does not make sense can carry someone to give up on their life. The intrusive

thoughts take over your power of being someone in life. Suicidal thoughts can also lead to
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malnutrition like your eating habits and sleeping. Without those two important factors of daily

life, it can slowly start to consume someone into they decide to take their life.

Revictimization does not only relate to the topics above, but it also leads to feeling guilty

and blaming everything on themselves. Not finding peace with yourself is harsh in a sense that it

can lead them to think that that is only what they are good for and will stop them from finding

another purpose in life. When you revictimize yourself it may lead them to be in a relationship

where people will abuse them again in any form. And because they believe they are worth

nothing, then they let it happen again.

In this study, we can see how these types of mental health issues become part of the

victim’s adult life after being sexually abused as a child. It can impact the way they interact with

their family members, friends, the people around them and will break relationships if not treated.

More so, going through this trauma alone can become very difficult over time.

Conclusion
Because dealing with sexual trauma can lead to severe damage, seeking for help is very

important. Parents should also reach out for help when a child seeks for help to take action of

their mental health from the very beginning. The sequels and trauma may not disappear the day

after, but rather turn into a process of continuity and dedication to make sure their mental health

is improving. It needs a lot of outer support to know your worth and to love yourself. To

conclude this study, as a recommendation to those who experienced child abuse, it is truly

important to take care of yourself. There are plenty of resources that will help those that had been

abused as a child such as a hotline for mental illnesses issues, centers specialized in mental

health disorders and trauma, and apps that promote positive health habits to better your life. See

appendix. Let’s make sure to keep everyone in a place where they feel safe and loved.
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References

Babatsikos, G. & Miles, D. (2015). How parents manage the risk of child sexual abuse: a

grounded theory. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse., 24(1), 76.

Beitchman, J., Zucker K., Hood J., et al. (1992). A review of the long-term effects of child

sexual abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect., 16(1), 18.

B.O. Rothbaum, E. Foa, D.S. Riggs, et al.

A prospective examination of post-traumatic stress disorder in rape victims

J Trauma Stress, 5 (1992), pp. 455-475

Briere, J. (1992). Methodological issues in the study of sexual abuse effects. Journal of

Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60(2), 196–203.

Collings, J. (1995). The long-term effects of contact and non-contact forms of child sexual abuse

in a sample of university men. Child Abuse & Neglect., 19(1).6.

D.G. Kilpatrick, L.J. Veronen, C.L. Best

Factors predicting psychological distress among rape victims

C.E. Figley (Ed.), Trauma and its wake, Brunner, New York (1985)

Fayaz, I (2019). Child abuse: effects and preventive measures. International Journal of Indian

Psychology, 7(2), 871-884.

Finkelhor, D., Hotaling, G., et.al (1997). Sexual abuse in a national survey of adult men and

women: Prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors,

Child Abuse & Neglect, 14(1), 19-28.

Finkelhor, D., Ormrod, R. K., & Turner, H. A. (2007). Poly-victimization: A neglected

component in child victimization. Child Abuse & Neglect, 31, 7-26

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Finkelhor, D. (1979). Sexually Victimized Children, Macmillan, New York.

Finkelhor, D. (1997). Early and long-term effects of child sexual abuse: An update.

Profession.Psychol. 21: 325–330.

Pierce. (1985). The sexually abused child: A comparison of male and female victims. Child

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2003.07.006

Appendix

Sexual Assault Survivors Resources

 National Center for Victims of Crime

(202)879-4216

 Love Is Repect

https://www.loveisrespect.org/

 National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

https://vrcnepa.org/resources/

 National Domestic Violence Hotline

https://greatist.com/live/sexual-assault-survivor-resources

 R.A.I.N.N.

https://rainn.org/

 Darkness to Light

https://www.d2l.org/