Adolescent Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse A Psychological Study

Abstract

Sexual abuse is a heinous crime which includes forced and unwanted sexual activity by one person newline(perpetrator) upon other (victim). The aftermath of sexual violence manifests differently in each newlinesurvivor because each person is different and unique. In India though sexual abuse is wide spread, newlinefear of social stigma, and an unwillingness to implicate family members discourage the survivors newlineas well as families from exposing abuse. Girls are up to three times more likely than boys to newlineexperience sexual violence. The emotional, physical, and social effects of sexual abuse vary from newlineperson to person. The present study was carried out to understand the psychological aspects of newlineadolescent survivors of sexual abuse. The study adopted concurrent triangulation research method newlinefor data collection. Experience or no experience of sexual abuse was the independent variable and newlinepsychological wellbeing, subjective wellbeing, self-esteem, self-efficacy and experience of other traumatic incidents were the dependent variables. The study also explored the psychological newlinedistress experienced by the adolescent survivors of sexual abuse. The sample for the study newlineconsisted of 304 college going adolescent girls of age ranging from 15 years to 18 years, out of newlinewhich 104 adolescent girls had the experience of sexual abuse and the rest of the participants i.e. newline200 adolescent girls had not experienced sexual abuse anytime in their life. The sample was newlinecollected using purposive sampling method. The tools used for the study were Psychological newlineWellbeing Scale (Ryff, 1995), Subjective wellbeing inventory (Nagpal and Sell, 1985), Rosenberg s newlineSelf-esteem scale (1965), Self-efficacy scale (Sherer et.al, 1982), Comprehensive trauma newlineinventory (Barnes et.al., 2009).Qualitative data regarding the nature, effects of sexual abuse and newlinePsychological distress among survivors of sexual abusewas collected using the structured newlineinterview schedule developed by the researcher in 2015. The quantitative data was analysed using newlineindependent samples t te