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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