The impacts of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) on victims has been widely documented in the research literature over the past decades. In particular a large body of research has been published on the long term impacts of CSA and whether there is a direct link between it and the effects that occur later in life. Although much of the earlier research in this area used cross-sectional studies with convenience or clinical samples, recent studies have progressively used large random community samples producing more reliable findings. The questions being reviewed in this literature review are ‘what are the long term impacts of child sexual abuse?’, and if so do intervening characteristics influence them to differ in individuals.
Several researchers state …show more content…
Whitehead (2011) found that CSA can have a major effect on brain functioning, as the child’s brain was damaged by the abuse they had suffered and these effects included dissociation memory impairment and reduced social functioning. According to many researchers one popular long term impact of CSA related to mental health is that of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), it is reported that CSA is linked to short and long term post traumatic symptoms, as both clinical and non-clinical groups of adult survivors were found to show more intrusive, avoidant and arousal symptoms of PTSD, than those who were not abused as children (Briere and Elliot, 1994 and McCoy and Keen, 2014). Briere and Elliot (1994) assessed adults who had experienced CSA and found them to have symptoms of PTSD, even if they did not meet the full diagnostic criteria for a formal diagnosis they assessed that 80% of survivors had some kind of post-traumatic symptoms. Although a strong body of research establishes the connection between CSA and mental health problems, Fergusson and Lynskey (1997) reported that one-quarter of those that have suffered CSA in their cohort study did not meet the criteria for any psychiatric diagnoses or any mental health issues in early adulthood. A recent study by Green et …show more content…
As demonstrated by the literature, there exists a strong body of research showing the long term impacts of CSA on victims and how these can be life long and also attempting to ascertain the characteristics of the victims and the abuse that may influence the long term impacts of CSA. These researchers have illustrated whether intervening issues such as severity, frequency and type of abuse are factors that influence and determine the long term impact of CSA in victims. However there still remains a gap in the literature as the research mainly focuses on female survivors which means there isn’t any research showing if these long term impacts vary in males and
Several researchers state …show more content…
Whitehead (2011) found that CSA can have a major effect on brain functioning, as the child’s brain was damaged by the abuse they had suffered and these effects included dissociation memory impairment and reduced social functioning. According to many researchers one popular long term impact of CSA related to mental health is that of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), it is reported that CSA is linked to short and long term post traumatic symptoms, as both clinical and non-clinical groups of adult survivors were found to show more intrusive, avoidant and arousal symptoms of PTSD, than those who were not abused as children (Briere and Elliot, 1994 and McCoy and Keen, 2014). Briere and Elliot (1994) assessed adults who had experienced CSA and found them to have symptoms of PTSD, even if they did not meet the full diagnostic criteria for a formal diagnosis they assessed that 80% of survivors had some kind of post-traumatic symptoms. Although a strong body of research establishes the connection between CSA and mental health problems, Fergusson and Lynskey (1997) reported that one-quarter of those that have suffered CSA in their cohort study did not meet the criteria for any psychiatric diagnoses or any mental health issues in early adulthood. A recent study by Green et …show more content…
As demonstrated by the literature, there exists a strong body of research showing the long term impacts of CSA on victims and how these can be life long and also attempting to ascertain the characteristics of the victims and the abuse that may influence the long term impacts of CSA. These researchers have illustrated whether intervening issues such as severity, frequency and type of abuse are factors that influence and determine the long term impact of CSA in victims. However there still remains a gap in the literature as the research mainly focuses on female survivors which means there isn’t any research showing if these long term impacts vary in males and