Thursday, April 28, 2011

Child Sexual Abuse Imapct - 23yo Study

This is a new study about CSA cases by University of Southern California and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College
of Medicine.
It is an amazing summary of a rigorous, 23 year prospective, longitudinal study of sexually abused girls, 
followed up through some of them having their own children. 
 
ABSTRACT 
This is a report on the research design and findings of a 23-year longitudinal 
study of the impact of intrafamilial sexual abuse on female development.
 The conceptual framework integrated concepts of psychological 
adjustment with theory regarding how psychobiological factors might 
impact development. Participants included 6- to 16-year-old females with
 substantiated sexual abuse and a demographically similar comparison 
group. A cross-sequential design was used and six assessments have taken
 place, with participants at median age 11 at the first assessment and 
median age 25 at the sixth assessment. Mothers of participants took part
 in the early assessments and offspring took part at the sixth 
assessment. Results of many analyses, both within circumscribed 
developmental stages and across development, indicated that sexually 
abused females (on average) showed deleterious sequelae across a host of
 biopsychosocial domains including: earlier onsets of puberty, cognitive
 deficits, depression, dissociative symptoms, maladaptive sexual 
development, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal attenuation, asymmetrical 
stress responses, high rates of obesity, more major illnesses and 
healthcare utilization, dropping out of high school, persistent 
posttraumatic stress disorder, self-mutilation, Diagnostic and 
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnoses, physical and sexual 
revictimization, premature deliveries, teen motherhood, drug and alcohol
 abuse, and domestic violence. Offspring born to abused mothers were at 
increased risk for child maltreatment and overall maldevelopment. There 
was also a pattern of considerable within group variability. Based on 
this complex network of findings, implications for optimal treatments 
are elucidated. Translational aspects of extending observational 
research into clinical practice are discussed in terms that will likely 
have a sustained impact on several major public health initiatives.
 
Click Here to read more about the study 

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