The Implications of Self-Definitions of Child Sexual Abuse for Understanding Socioemotional Adaptation in Young Adulthood.

Publisher: Taylor & Francis Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 9301157 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1547-0679 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 10538712 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Child Sex Abus Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Philadelphia : Taylor & Francis
Original Publication: London : Informa Healthcare

Emotional Adjustment* ; Risk-Taking* ; Self Concept*; Adult Survivors of Child Abuse/*psychology ; Child Abuse, Sexual/*psychology; Adolescent ; California/epidemiology ; Child ; Humans ; Self Report ; Students/psychology ; Universities ; Young Adult

This study examined associations between child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors' self-definition status (i.e., whether or not survivors self-identified as sexually abused) and multiple measures of psychopathology, self-system functioning, and risk behaviors. We evaluated the hypothesis that survivors with concordant abuse perceptions (i.e., individuals who reported objective CSA and self-defined as sexually abused) would evidence more pronounced adjustment difficulties in young adulthood than survivors with discordant perceptions (i.e., individuals who reported objective CSA but did not self-define as sexually abused). In this large and ethnically diverse college student sample ( N = 2,195; 63.8% female, 36.2% male; 83.3% nonwhite), objective experiences of CSA were associated with increased psychopathology, decreased self-system functioning, and increased risk behaviors, but the magnitude of these effects varied by survivors' self-definition status. Relative to their nonmaltreated peers, survivors with concordant abuse perceptions evidenced the largest elevations in psychopathology and risk behaviors, whereas survivors with discordant abuse perceptions evidenced the largest deficits in self-system functioning. These findings indicate that standard screening criteria may misidentify a sizable group of CSA survivors because these individuals do not perceive their experiences as "abuse." Efforts to understand the meaning ascribed to CSA experiences may profitably guide clinical interventions to enhance specific domains of functioning.

Keywords: Child sexual abuse; abuse perception; effect sizes; self-definition status; young adult adjustment

Date Created: 20201118 Date Completed: 20211018 Latest Revision: 20211018

20231215

10.1080/10538712.2020.1841352

33206584