Honors Program
Date of this Version
Spring 3-19-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Citation
Salvatori, R. 2020 Examining Heterogeneous Outcomes in Sexually Abused Children. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Abstract
Child sexual abuse is a prevalent social problem that can have a variety of short-term and long-term effects on a child’s functioning. While sexual abuse can be detrimental to a child’s social, emotional, and behavioral functioning, not all victims’ responses to sexual abuse are the same. In the child sexual abuse literature, a variety of child-related, support-related, and abuse-related variables have been associated with differences in symptomology. The current study aimed to further investigate the relationship between heterogeneous outcomes and the child-related, support-related, and abuse-related variables that have previously been associated with differences in symptomology. Results suggest many of the variables significantly associated with child outcomes in the extant literature are rendered insignificant when accounting for the other variables. The strongest predictors of heterogeneous outcomes following abuse were the child’s self-esteem as it relates to their parents and the parents’ own mental health. These results support the need for family-inclusive treatments that aim to treat the whole family.
Comments
Copyright Ryan Salvatori 2020.