Childhood Sexual Abuse

Abigail Edemidiong

Childhood Sexual abuse is a topic that is not popular in many cultures; there are many cultures that do not even acknowledge the fact that childhood sexual abuse is an issue. Childhood sexual abuse can happen at any age and can affect many races and cultures, the impact that sexual abuse can have on a child is astounding. The intensity, duration of childhood sexual abuse can have a detrimental effect on adults later on in life.
Childhood Sexual abuse is legally defined as an act of a person adult or child who forces, coerces or threatens a child to have any form of sexual contact or to engage in any type of sexual activity at the perpetrator’s. (http://www.americanhumane.org/children/stop-child-abuse/fact-sheets/child-sexual-abuse.html) Sexual abuse can happen through fondling, making a child touch an adult’s sexual organs, penetration in a child’s vagina or anus by using and object or sexual organs, exposing sexual organs to a child is also a form of sexual abuse even though it is not touching it can still affect a child in adulthood. Some ways to spot childhood sexual abuse is when a child is beginning to have trouble walking or sitting, and when he/she is afraid of a particular person or men or women. Another sign of sexual abuse is when a child demonstrates or performs sexual behaviors that are inappropriate for their age. Some physical signs of CSA are a rash around genitals or anus, or mild to severe trauma to genitals.
Psychiatric patients who have been sexually abused in childhood suffer from a wide variety of symptoms. These include depression suicidality dissociation, splitting and fragmentation of the personality substance abuse, somato-form disorders, and psychosexual disorders antisocial acts, and reenactments in the form of revictimization. (Jackson, 1994) CSA can be problematic to individuals in their daily activities, victims who do not understand the effects of CSA in adulthood can be highly suicidal because of the severe trauma. Drug use is widely used amongst CSA victims in order for them to cope with the fears and nightmares associated with abuse, which is a form of risky behavior.
Risky behavior can be defined as any behavior that is dangerous to one’s body or health. Risky behavior can be labeled as drug use, sexual promiscuity, such as having many sexual partners, and violence which can affect someone mentally and physically.
Risky sexual behavior was defined as one of the following: (a) having sex with more than one person, (b) being diagnosed with an incident STD in the past 3 months, (c) having a partner who had sex with other people, (d) having a partner who injected drugs, (e) having a partner who was diagnosed with an incident STD in the past 3 months, or (f) having a partner who is HIV positive. Exclusion criteria included using a condom every time with every partner in the past 3 months. Similarly, Quina and colleagues indicated that psychological factors, such as low self-esteem, decreased psychosocial well-being, the use of avoidant or emotion-focused coping strategies, low sexual health self-efficacy, negative sexual self-images, an adherence to traditional gender roles, and anticipated negative responses from sexual partners, are related to both CSA and adult sexual risk. (Mosack et. Al, 2009) Sexual risk behavior is primarily due to low self esteem which is a symptom of CSA. Due to high sexual risk behavior it leads many CSA victims to sexually transmitted diseases. Individuals who were sexually abused as children report an earlier age of first consensual intercourse more episodes of unprotected sex and a greater number of sexual partners. (Senn, Carey, Vanable, Coury-Doniger, & Urban, 2006) Having numerous sexual partners can lead to high reports of STD’s, individuals who were sexually abused as children are more likely to have an incident with sexually transmitted disease. (Senn, Carey, Vanable, Coury-Doniger, & Urban, 2006)
Race and CSA can be highly compatible. Another important factor of this research is noting that 66% of these women were African American. Among women, African Americans are disproportionately at risk with a new HIV infection rate nearly 15 times greater than that of White women and nearly 4 times greater than that of Latino women. (Walsh, Senn, Carey, 2012) What is derived from the research from Walsh, Senn, and Carey is that women, especially of low economic disposition, and urban women are more likely to experience violence at high rates, and more predisposed to HIV, other STDs and unplanned pregnancy.
When analyzing unsafe sexual practices, the issue of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) comes into account among men and women. In Senn, Carey, Vanable, Coury-Doniger, and Urban’s research on sexual risk behavior, they showed that there was a relationship between CSA, and sexual risky behavior. Senn, Carey, Vanable, Coury-Doniger, and Urban recruited 827 patients from an STD clinic and CSA was reported by 53% of women and 49% of men. There was also an association with greater sexual risk behavior, including more sexual partners, unprotected sex, and sex trading; alcohol use for men and drug use for women mediated the relationship between CSA and the number of sexual partners in past 3 months. (Senn, Carey, Vanable, Coury-Doniger, Urban, 2012) After reading the research, what also is shown is that there is a definite relationship between violence and CSA and the number of episodes of unprotected sex in the past 3 months for women. (Senn, Carey, Vanable, Coury-Doniger, Urban, 2012) In the research Miller (2009) proposed a conceptual model to explain the link between CSA and unsafe sex, he came up with a hypothesis that stated four reasons why CSA leads to the practice of unsafe sex. The four mechanisms are using substances to cope with the abuse, mental illness resulting from abuse, having more risky affiliations with people, and having poorer sexual adjustment. (Senn, Carey, Vanable, Coury-Doniger, Urban, 2012) From this research, CSA highly influences the sexual lifestyles and sexual decisions of adults and that one-half of male and females who have been sexually abused are more likely to seek STD care and reports of CSA.
In a sexual context, an internal locus of control would be manifested by a sense of personal agency in sexual decision-making (such as deciding to use condoms during sex) while an external locus of control might be manifested by an attitude that one’s partner controls ones sexual health and behaviors or that one is destined to become HIV positive.