...The sexual abuse of children has been given a lot more recognition in the last few decades. Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) can be defined as any sexual contact with a child through the use of coercion or deceit to secure the child’s participation or any sexual contact with a child incapable of consent. (Finkelhor, 1985) CSA has a long-term impact on several health and social indicators; a study found that survivors of trauma are associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and substance abuse. (Felitti and Anda, 2010) The extent of damage to well-being and functioning differs widely among CSA survivors. However, some adult survivors go on to rise above the abuse and shame to live successful lives. They build an affluent career,...
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...Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse Shobila Kaligounder Marymount University Introduction As per UNICEF’s (2014) definition, sexual violence against children comprises any sexual activities imposed by an adult on a child against which the child is entitled to protection by criminal law. This includes: (a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful or psychologically harmful sexual activity; (b) The use of children in commercial sexual exploitation; (c) The use of children in audio or visual images of child sexual abuse; and (d) Child prostitution, sexual slavery, sexual exploitation in travel and tourism, trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation (within and between countries), sale of children for sexual purposes and forced marriage. Sexual activities are also considered as abuse when committed against a child by another child if the offender is significantly older than the victim or uses power, threat or other means of pressure. Consensual sexual activities between children are not considered as sexual abuse if the children are older than the age limit defined by the State Party. In spite of a clear definition for child sexual abuse violence in the lives of children is so real and as an international community we do very little to protect them. There is also a dearth of data to prove the prevalence of violence due to the hidden nature of the abuse and gives a false notion that it is a rare occurrence. Children are vulnerable to sexual victimization...
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...Repressed and silent suffering: consequences of childhood sexual abuse for women’s health and well-being Sigrun Sigurdardottir RN, MS (Director) (PhD Student)1,2 and Sigridur Halldorsdottir RN, MSN, PhD (Med Dr) (Professor and Chairman)3 1 The Icelandic Research Center Against Violence, Akureyri, Iceland, 2Public Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland and 3Faculty of Graduate Studies, School of Health Sciences, University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Iceland Scand J Caring Sci; 2013; 27; 422–432 Repressed and silent suffering: consequences of childhood sexual abuse for women’s health and well-being Research results indicate that psychological trauma in childhood caused by child sexual abuse can have serious and widespread consequences for health and well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the consequences of childhood sexual abuse for women’s health and well-being. The research methodology was phenomenology. Seven women with a history of childhood sexual abuse were interviewed twice with 1–6 months interval. For all the women, the abuse started when they were between 4 and 5. All of them were repeatedly violated and traumatized ever since then and were even still being victimized at the time of the interviews. The main result of the study is that time does not heal all wounds. All the women described great repressed and silent suffering in all aspects of life, and the abuse is still seriously affecting them and their loved...
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...Results Hypothesis Adulthood unresolved issues relating to childhood sexual abuse will result into sexual misconduct, anger and emotional outburst, substance abuse, emotional distress and interpersonal problems. When an adult has been molested as a child without any family support that child/adult will turn to any means necessary to self-medicate. Understanding the triggers to childhood sexual abuse into adulthood will allow therapist to effectively provide a treatment plan to affect one’s life span. Goals Amy will have verbalized emotions related to her mother’s neglect of Amy’s childhood sexual abuse by discussing two related emotions per session. Amy will implement two new calming strategies/mechanisms as part of her anger management to eliminate physical aggression towards family and friends. Objective...
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...I am making an attempt to narrow down my topic for the next essay assignment. I find myself curious about the impact of childhood sexual abuse on adolescent’s sexual development. This theme stands out as I have been working with a sexual abuse survivor in my practice. Firestone, Firestone, and Catlett (2006) as well as Maltz (2012) discussed the impact such violation has on survivors’ sexual relating and function. Perhaps, negative implications of abuse on survivors’ sexuality are not surprising; however, they are not fully recognized by the society at large as well as clinicians who treat them (Maltz, 2012). Sexual feelings and relating suggest people’s vitality. However, acknowledging individuals’ will to live can also mean that they are...
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...suspected that childhood sexual abuse is a common theme in the back ground of women with bulimia nervosa. This hypothesis has come under much scrutiny and as a result, has been tested and re-tested time and again. Studies have had findings stating everything from, there is no evidentiary support for this hypothesis, to there is a non-specific correlation and yet other studies claim that childhood sexual abuse is a direct risk factor for bulimia nervosa. More recent articles seem to point toward some type of relationship between bulimia nervosa and childhood sexual abuse. The process of finding this information takes some digging. Many search engines (including Medscape, Proquest, and Google’s scholarly article search) were used. Much of the research in this area seems to have been done approximately ten years ago and therefore was not current enough to be used. These older studies also have a common theme in that they tended to lean toward the opinion that bulimia nervosa and childhood sexual abuse are not directly related. The more current articles on this subject agree more with the school of though that bulimia nervosa is closely related to childhood sexual abuse. According to Pearlstein (2002) “Many older studies involved clinical rather than community samples” (p. 5) which may shed some light on why their results showed little to no correlation with bulimia nervosa and childhood sexual abuse. If there is a relationship between childhood sexual abuse and bulimia nervosa...
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...The purpose of the review is to investigate whether childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is strongly associated with non-suicidal self-injury, a post traumatic symptom, among adolescents and young adults. II. REVIEW The relationship between childhood sexual maltreatment and non-suicidal self injury can be discussed through the Glassman et al. (2007) study. The study aimed to analyze the associations between different types of childhood abuse, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect and physical neglect and non suicidal self-injury. A sample of ninety-four adolescents whom aged twelve to nineteen years were prepared by recruiting from local psychiatric clinics, newspapers, community bulletin boards and the internet....
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...Survivors of sexual assault may experience severe feelings of anxiety, stress or fear, known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as a direct result of the assault. Substance Abuse Victims of rape or sexual assault may turn to alcohol or other substances in an attempt to relieve their emotional suffering. Self-Harm / Self-Injury Deliberate self-harm, or self-injury, is when a person inflicts physical harm on himself or herself. Stockholm Syndrome Described as a victim’s emotional “bonding” with their abuser, Stockholm Syndrome develops subconsciously and on an involuntary basis. Depression There are many emotional and psychological reactions that victims of rape and sexual assault can experience. One of the most common of these is depression. Sexually Transmitted Infections Table of Sexually Transmitted Infections, their symptoms, treatment, and possible complications. Pregnancy If you were recently raped, you may have concerns about becoming pregnant from the attack. If the rape happened a long time ago, you may have concerns about a pregnancy that resulted from the attack. Flashbacks A flashback is when memories of past traumas feel as if they are taking place in the current moment. Borderline Personality Disorder Borderline Personality Disorder, known as BPD, is one of many possible long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse. Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Assault The long term effects on survivors of childhood sexual assault and/or...
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...Practice and Policy (2011) Marian Reiff, Dorothy, M. Castille, KristinaMuenzenmaier, & Bruce Link Topic of the study: Childhood Abuse and the Content of Adult Psychotic Symptom Fathimath Shafa (3249) Abnormal Psychology -PSYCHOLOGY 4501 Missouri University of Science and Technology Dr. Mojgan Shadbash Psy.D., Clinical Psychology, Germany 1. Introduction Childhood sexual abuse and childhood physical abuse have been regarded as to cause psychotic symptoms or schizophrenia. The symptoms of previous trauma starts to display in adulthood. This particular research explores the connection between childhood abuse and the content of adult psychotic symptoms. The researcher managed to explain this relationship in multiple pathways despite the complexity of the body. About 54% of the schizophrenic patients reported having sexually abused during childhood and it is important to know how the psychotic symptoms might be related to early traumatic events considering the high prevalence rate. This research accommodates some of the other researches done on this area, in one of the research, they have mentioned specific approaches that were used to investigate the association between psychotic symptoms and the two subjects. Psychotic symptoms have been linked to range of severe experiences of childhood sexual abuse such ass malevolence, sexual themes, and olfactory sensations. Moreover, it contains subordinate relationships. This research further investigates this approach...
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...After reading Jeannette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle”, it became clear that there were many repetitive factors that shaped the Walls family’s lives. There are numerous accounts of sexual abuse, parental alcoholism, evidence of mental illness and finally poverty in the form of homelessness. For even when the children prospered the parents choose to be homeless. The question is, are these factors relative? Can it be that childhood sexual abuse can inflict mental illness or alcoholism in adulthood? Does mental illness and alcoholism affect the chances of being homeless? The focus of this essay is to provide evidence that the events in Walls own life, documented in her memoir, have a butterfly effect in the outcome of their parent’s lives. In Her memoir Walls documents several cases of sexual abuse during her and her sibling’s childhood. She writes of her own experiences with Billy Deel, although he is only a minor as well, he sexually assaults her during a game of hide and seek. PAGE 85-87 Afterward Jeanette was reluctant to tell her father, “I had a feeling it would cause problems” (Walls 87) The second assault Walls documents, was when she was nine years old. “I was awakened by someone running his hands over my private parts.” “‘I just want to play a game with you’ a man’s voice said.” The next day when they told their father, “he said he was going to kill that low life…” Although, no serious action was taken to find him or prevent it from happening again. (Walls...
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...of multi-type abuse among homeless young adults because I expect as a future certified mental health professional (MHP), that I may be doing this kind of work. I look forward to working with children and young adults and learning all that there is to learn, and as a health care practitioner I will be able to help improve and individual issues. For example my article talks about “Exploring the psychosocial and behavioral adjustments outcomes of multi-type abuse among homeless young adults”, as a health care professional I will be able to deal with different illnesses, disorders, conditions, and issues. The article states between 8-32% for females subjects and 1-16% male subjects. Up to 22% of male subjects and 20% of female subjects report childhood physical abuse. Childhood sexual abuse causes serious traumatic issues in which it can cause an individual to hinder in normal social growth, and let alone cause many different psychosocial problems. An individual who suffers from sexual abuse tends to affect the individual in so many traumatic ways, such as; self-blame and guilt meaning they feel that they are probably the reason why this happened, flashbacks of the molestation, nightmares, fear of things that are associated with the abuse such as (smells, places, objects, doctor visits, etc.), self-esteem issues, pain addiction, addiction to sex, anxiety, other mental illnesses and the list goes on. These effects just do not last only through an individual childhood but it can also...
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...Impact of sexual harassment Sexual harassment often has a serious and negative impact on women's physical and emotional health. Sexual harassment can be happening anywhere, for example in the workforce, in schools and universities, doctor's offices healing mental health clinics and etc. Sexual harassment is often found between boss and employee, between employees and it is also can be women sexually harassing men or the harasser and victim can be the same sex. Sexual harassment has psychological and emotional effects on the sufferer. * Anxiety, frustration, depression, sleeplessness and/or nightmares, difficulty concentrating, headaches, fatigue, shame and or guilt, feeling powerless, helpless or out of control, feeling angry towards the harasser, loss of confidence and self-esteem, withdrawal and isolation, suicidal thoughts or attempts * Retaliation from the harasser, or colleagues/friends of the harasser, should the victim complain or file a grievance (retaliation can involve revenge along with more sexual harassment, and can involve stalking the complainant) * Having to drop courses, or change academic plans; it may impact grade performance * Increased absenteeism to avoid harassment, or because of illness from the stress * Having one’s personal life held up for public scrutiny – the victim becomes the “accused,” and their dress, lifestyle, and private life will often come under attack. (Note: this rarely occurs for the perpetrator.) * Being...
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...Developmental Assessment of Childhood: PRECIOUS The film Precious is an emotional movie that deals with the unfortunate realities of everyday life for some individuals. The film that stares Gabourey Sidibe who plays the main character Clarice “Precious” Jones is based out of Harlem in the year of 1987. Precious is a sixteen year-old obese and uneducated teenager whom has had to grow up in a severely dysfunctional family environment. Her mother verbally and physically abuses her, often times using her as a personal servant. Her father has been sexually abusing her since childhood, and has impregnated her twice. Precious has lived with the ugly truth that because of her weight, skin color, and sexual abuse, she does not fit in with the standards of society in the eyes of some. After the school finds out about Precious’ second pregnancy, she is suspended from school. She is then referred to an alternative school, “Each one Teach one” in hopes of changing the road in which her life is heading. Precious finds ways to deal with her painful realities through imagination and fantasy. Encouraged by her new teacher at “Each one Teach one”, precious begins learning to read and write. Towards the middle of the film, Precious begins to meet with Social Worker, Miss Weiss, who eventually becomes aware of the incest in the household when Precious accidentally tells her. Precious’ mother informs her that her father has passed away due to AIDS, and soon after Precious discovers...
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...“Give a Child a Helping Hand” Intervention Methods For Child Sexual Abuse Introduction Child sexual abuse has severe and long lasting implications for the victim while being historically unreported and unaddressed. Child abuse is difficult to identify because there is a lack of consensus across many sectors of healthcare about which “acts” are defined as abuse. One study outlines the associated interpersonal characteristics (such as boundary violations, betrayal, sexual traumatization, stigma, and secrecy) result in developmental consequences not associated with other forms of maltreatment (Noll). This is due to the highly stigmatized nature of the abuse and the multiple barriers that exist that are both individual and systemic in nature. There are many types of intervention options that are conflicting in nature; some promote a clinical setting while others tout community-based approach involving many types of adults in raising awareness. Studies show that cumulative exposure to multiple forms of victimization represents a substantial source of mental health risk and costly health care costs from high utilization rates. There is a $103.8 billion cost of child abuse and neglect of more than $33 billion in direct costs for foster care services, hospitalization, mental health treatment, and law enforcement while indirect costs of over $70 billion include loss of productivity, as well as expenditures related to chronic health...
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...Library on a topic of your choice. Provide the required information for each sources. Source 1 Author: Claire Burke Dracurcker Date: 2/1/13 Title: Healing from Childhood Sexual Abuse Publication: May 2010 Peer Reviewed? Yes What words did you use to find this article? Abuse What type of article is this (research, summary, reflection, essay, etc.)? Summary Did this article include an abstract? Yes Summarize the article (75 to 100 words) Childhood sexual abuse is a social problem in the healthcare arena. A lot of children who have endured sexual abuse in their lives, usually have long term psychological, behavior, or social effects. The National Child Abuse Data estimates that at least over 700,000 children were victims of abuse or neglect in the U.S. A national survey conducted during the periods of 2001 to 2003 documented that 1 in 15 adults in U.S experienced forced sex in their lifetime. In women sexual abuse is related to poor health, gynecological and gastrointestinal symptoms. But for men physical health and functional impairment is what seem to be underlining issue. Childhood Sexual Abuse is usually associated with anxiety, depression, and mood swings. While tackling the effects on the Childhood Sexual Abuse, begin to make changes in the way they parented their in order to protect them abuse. Source 2 Author: Coleman Smith, Virginia Date: 2/2/13 Title: The Reluctance of Women to Respond to Preterm Labor Publication: 4/2012 Peer Reviewed? Yes ...
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