Victims of sexual abuse present greater symptomatology than the general population, even when their intensity is highly variable. The most severe forms of abuse (frequent, violent, with penetration) would be the ones associated to greater symptomatology; however the evidence is not conclusive. This study aimed at describing symptomatology in victims of sexual abuse and evaluating its relationship with the severity of the abuse. A number of 143 adolescents between 12 and 17 years old (83 victims of sexual abuse and 60 with no history of abuse) participated in the study, where they had to respond to depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress scales. Both groups showed similar levels of depression and anxiety, while adolescents with histories of sexual abuse presented higher post-traumatic stress. Symptomatology in the group with histories of abuse varied according to the normal curve, but the severity of the abuse was not responsible for this variation. Moreover, women presented greater depression, post-traumatic stress and anxiety than men, and victims of abuse outside the family had higher post-traumatic stress than victims of domestic abuse. In this study we questioned the idea of "objectifying" the severity of abuse and discussed the need to study the factors mediating the relationship between severity of abuse and its symptoms.
Keywords:
child sexual abuse, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, adolescents
Guerra, C., & Farkas, C. (2015). Symptomatology in Victims of Sexual Abuse: Are the “Objective” Characteristics of Abuse Important?. Revista De Psicología, 24(2). https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-0581.2015.38013
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