NCJ Number
111890
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 12 Issue: 2 Dated: (1988) Pages: 163-170
Date Published
1988
Length
8 pages
Annotation
A retrospective survey was accomplished using records of 202 sexually abused, physically abused, and nonabused children younger than age 7 who were examined at a community mental health center in Portland, Oreg., from 1982 to 1984.
Abstract
A standardized assessment form was used to evaluate each client of intake. Of the total patients, 37 were categorized as sexually abused, 35 as physically abused, and 130 as nonabused children. Information was collected using four variables concerning abusive acts: perpetrator-victim relationship; age of perpetrator; quantity of abuse; and for sexual abuse, type of sexual act. The three groups were compared in order to learn more about sexual abuse in young children. Family background of both abused groups were similar to each other, but different from the nonabused group in having more factors related to family stress. Clinical presentations of all children overlapped a great deal symptomatically. However, the sexually abused children had a statistically significant higher frequency of inappropriate sexual behavior than the other two groups. Several characteristics of the abusive patterns suffered by the two abuse groups differed at or near statistical significance: sexually abused children were more often victimized in single acts by nonrelated child perpetrators than were physically abused children. Tabular data and 19 references.