Cultural, Economic, And Cultural Impacts Of Child Sexual Abuse

“I need to move, my landlord ask me to trade myself for the rent. Help me find a new house.” One day, my client said to me when I interned at the State of New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department. This client is an African-American single mother with diagnosis of mild retardation. She does not have a job and all of her income is from Supplement Security Income. As a victim of child sexual abuse (CSA) who received services from different mental health settings since she was very young, she is unconfident in everything and has never escaped from the nightmare of being raped even after she grew up. Many men went in and out of her life and she experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) from time to time. Her parents want to get money from her and ask her to prostitute. It seems that everyone blames her and uses her. Impacts, including low self-esteem, internalized shame, sense of disempowerment, mental health issues, poverty, etc., come to her during her adulthood. Why did she have so many traumas during adulthood? Why did she feel worthless and valueless? Why could the …show more content…
The set of cultural norms that govern sexual behavior, sexual scripts, for male and female are unequal. In both United States and China, men are supposed to enjoy sex and can have many sex experiences with women. On the other hand, women are expected to have less interest in sex and have fewer sex experiences. As more and more men went in and out of her life, some of her partner treated her badly and made her feel valueless. Economic dependency makes them vulnerable in the family and society. However, they are harder to find a high-income job in the capital economic system. Moreover, lacking in assesses to educational system or job training contributes to her economic dependency in the family. Lack of knowledge also makes her vulnerable in protecting her own