NCJ Number
210027
Journal
Journal Trauma Practice Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Dated: 2004 Pages: 23-47
Date Published
2004
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This study describes multidimensional manifestations of trauma and resilience in sexually abused adolescents (13- to 17-years-old).
Abstract
The study involved 30 French-speaking Canadian female adolescent survivors of confirmed child sexual abuse (CSA). The Multidimensional Trauma Recovery and Resiliency Interview (MTRR) was administered to the girls to assess a variety of areas of functioning. Self-report questionnaires were administered to assess depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sexual preoccupations, dissociation, anger, self-destructive behaviors, stigmatization, interpersonal mistrust, social support, disclosure, and services. Details on the CSA were obtained from Child Protection Services files. As expected, when abuse did not involve penetration, adolescents had higher scores in five domains: authority over memory, symptom mastery, self-cohesion, safe attachment, and meaning-making. They also had higher scores on the resilience scale. Family violence in the past year also correlated negatively with two domains; those who reported fewer types of family violence in the past year had higher scores on symptom mastery and safe attachment. Adolescents who disclosed their abuse to a greater number of people had higher scores on the integration of memory and affect as well as on meaning-making. Adolescents who reported participating in individual therapy in the past year had lower scores on affect tolerance and regulation, symptom mastery, safe attachment, and resilience than did those who did not report participating in such therapy. Overall, this study confirmed that complex traumatic outcomes are present early-on in the lives of adolescents who have experienced CSA, which emphasizes the need to assess multiple areas of functioning when working with this population. 3 tables and 74 references