NCJ Number
226926
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 33 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 102-115
Date Published
February 2009
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examined the proportion of sexually abused (SA) girls who show school functioning difficulties 1-month post-disclosure.
Abstract
Results show that about half the sample experienced social, behavioral, academic, or cognitive difficulties post-disclosure. Results indicate that 54 percent of girls present school adaptation problems in the clinical or below-average range in at least one of the domains evaluated. Below-average cognitive functioning is the most common difficulty. Additionally, 52 percent of girls rank below the 40th percentile on all 3 subscales evaluated. SA girls also appear challenged by both the verbal subscales, such as knowledge and vocabulary (47-52 percent below the 25th percentile), and the arithmetic subscale (37 percent). Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores for the overall sample revealed that the most often reported problems were clinical academic difficulties (39 percent), followed by externalized and withdrawn behaviors (34 percent), and social problems (28 percent). Regarding academic difficulties, 48 percent of mothers reported that their child performed below average, 15 percent received remedial services, and 24 percent already had repeated a grade. Results suggest that SA girls are more at risk of experiencing severe academic problems requiring additional services than are children representative of a national sample. Mother’s estimate of pre-abuse functioning also indicated that 19 percent of girls struggled in school even before the abuse occurred. Data were collected from 100 French-speaking mother-daughter dyads from the Montreal urban area, referred to the Socio-Judicial Paediatric Clinic of the Mother and Child University Hospital Center-CHU Sainte-Justine by Child Protective Services, the police, or hospital emergency departments. Tables, figures, and references