Sexual Abuse Trauma - Literature review Example

SEXUAL ABUSE TRAUMA of the of the Literature Review Introduction According to Dube, Anda, Whitfield, Brown, Felitti, Dong & Giles (2005), sexual abuse often at times is stated as molestation and it is enforcing sexual behavior which is undesirable by one person on another. In certain circumstances when such force is for short interval of time or is infrequent and immediate it is regarded as sexual assault. Sexual molester is a term used for the offender. This term represents any behavior executed by an adult in order to stimulate sexually either a child or an adult. The age of consent is vital component in this kind of act and if the victim is below this age than it is regarded as child sexual abuse. An analysis on child sexual abuse reveals that victim of this act has a long term social and psychological impact. There are instances noticed both in case of females as well as males where there was suicide being attempted, more chances of an alcoholic partner and even unhealthy relationship with partner. The entire research study would not only aim towards identifying the various aspects which is associated with child sexual abuse but even its impact on adulthood would be thoroughly analyzed. On the other hand, different opinion of authors regarding the varying consequences of child sexual abuse both for females and males will be outlined in this study. In many cases it has been observed that people who possess developmental disabilities are sexual abuse victims (Dube, Anda, Whitfield, Brown, Felitti, Dong & Giles, 2005, pp. 430-438). As per research, people who have disabilities are basically victimized as they lack understanding ability. The cases of child sexual abuse are rapidly increasing in the current scenario and psychology of an individual is linked with such act. Discussion As per Cage & Rompa, Kalichman, Benotsch and Gore-Felton, (2004), sexual misconduct usually takes place when an individual utilizes position of authority so as to compel another person to forcefully engage in some kind of unwanted sexual activity. Sexual harassment that occurs in workplace is due to an employee being involved in sexual situation as one has fear of being dismissed. Even in education field there is a great deal of sexual harassment cases where students are sexually abused by teachers having an authority to give them a failing grade. Child sexual abuse is whereby for sexual gratification of an older adolescent a child is abused. It basically comprise of direct sexual contact or a person engaging into any form of indecent exposure so as to initiate sexual desires within a child. However this form of sexual abuse often results into various kind of trauma observed mainly within children. The rate of suicide cases has been witnessed to increase in the recent years and the main reason behind this is fear within victims to proclaim sexual abuse. Researchers continue to refine and develop trauma treatment mechanisms and incorporate it within child welfare services. There are unhelpful attributions and beliefs observed in victims of sexual abuse. In such abusive events, people are often found guilty for their respective role in such events, anger of parents as they are unaware about the sexual abuse case, powerlessness feeling, a sense of considering themselves as damaged goods and fear that others would behave differently with them for being sexually abused. There are other forms of behavior also which is noticed in victims those who has been sexually abused such as acting out behaviors or engaging into sexual behaviors that are age-inappropriate. Mental health disorder is another form of trauma that encompasses major depression (Cage & Rompa, Kalichman, Benotsch and Gore-Felton, 2004, pp. 1-15). Roberts, O’Connor, Dunn & Golding (2004), in their works described PTSD or posttraumatic stress disorders basically are symptoms that are represented through reoccurring or intrusive thoughts of any traumatic experience, avoidance of trauma reminders such as smell, people, place, sensory triggers and sound, irritability, emotional numbing, concentration problems or trouble while sleeping, and emotional or physical hyper arousal that is characterized by rapidly accelerating anger, crying or emotional swings which is not aligned with appropriate stimulus. These forms of symptoms often create negative impact on daily life of a child. It eventually affects behavior of a child, self-perception, school performance, emotional regulation and attention. There have been numerous studies performed on this particular topic in order to help children overcome such trauma and symptoms associated with domestic violence and child sexual abuse. On the other hand, this form of treatment even enables children to come out of their traumatic memories, problematic behaviors and thoughts. Through such treatment children are able to develop interpersonal and effective coping skills. In certain situation it is essential to analyze the importance of parental support in terms of recovering their children from the act of sexual abuse. The support from parents is important as it helps a child to forget such traumatic experiences and even give them the required confidence to deal with external environment. Those organizations which conduct treatment sessions for sexually abused children are divided into meetings for parents and children individually. In these meetings equal time is allocated for both the meetings. The component that is linked with parental support indefinitely teaches stress management, communication skills, and behavior and parenting management skills (Roberts, O’Connor, Dunn & Golding, 2004, pp. 525-545). On basis of this technique parents are able to address own emotional distress linked with trauma of a child and even effectively support their children. Aspelmeier, Elliott & Smith (2007), in their studies stated that there are several treatment approaches for such child sexual abuse. The three major kinds of treatment are cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy and family therapy. The cognitive therapy focused on change behavior, addressing perceptions or thoughts of an individual. In this theoretical framework thinking patterns are analyzed which develop unhelpful or distorted views. Behavioral therapy on the other hand focuses on bringing forth certain modifications in habitual responses such as fear or anger to identified stimuli or situations. Whereas family therapy majorly states that patterns of interactions are usually examined amongst all family members in order to alleviate or identify problems. These stress management procedures and cognitive behavioral therapy are basically structured for treatment of anxiety, fear and various depressions greatly observed within adults. The rape victims usually require this form of treatment as it is important for them to overcome such trauma experiences and live their life in a better way. It is not only essential for rape victims but even for those children who possess excessive anxiety and fear (Aspelmeier, Elliott & Smith, 2007, pp. 549-566). As per Filipas & Ullman (2006), the protocol of these therapies are so designed that it is able to eradicate specific difficulties which are exhibited by children. On the contrary, parenting support guidance which is stressed upon by these therapies is mainly focused on aligning parents towards behavioral difficulties of their children. It has been observed that these kinds of child sexual abuse often results into long term psychological impact for females in comparison to males. The main reason behind this trend is a male dominative society where females are deprived off their basic rights and they are even ill-treated in many situations. Being abused sexually reduces the confidence level within females and due to failure towards leading normal social life forces those to take certain wrong decisions such as committing suicide, etc. There are regions where the rate of suicide cases are rapidly increasing and this trend can be directly associated with growing number of rape cases, molestation, etc. On the other hand, unhealthy relationship is even witnessed for those males who have been victims of such sexual abuse. These males get involved in sexual exposure and pornography, and they happen to conduct different illegal act. However a traumatic experience which is related to sexual abuse has varied impacts on females and males. In many cases having an alcoholic partner is also result of sexual abuse trauma (Filipas & Ullman, 2006, pp. 652-672). Within the adolescence period these activities usually take place and have a long term negative impact on the victims as well as molesters. This is not only a matter of concern for individuals who are being victimized but even for the entire society as it conveys a negative image. According to Whetten, Leserman, Lowe, Stangl, Thielman, Swartz & Van Scoyoc (2006), the individuals who belong to the gay community and have some memories related to child sexual abuse is more prone towards contracting HIV. In many scenarios anxiety is considered to be the underlying factor that results into various trauma symptoms. It can even be stated that sexual orientation is an essential component which helps in analyzing the trauma related to sexual abuse. Sexual orientation is enduring pattern of sexual or romantic attraction to individuals of opposite gender, same gender or even to both genders. There are four main categories of such sexual attraction such as homosexuality, bisexuality, heterosexuality and asexuality that basically means lack of any form of sexual attraction towards another person. Sexual identity is usually formulated on the basis of these categories. This term can even be stated as sense of identity of an individual based on related behaviors, attractions, and community membership of other individuals who share similar attractions. In psychological research, the term sexual orientation is usually overlapped with sexual preference. For instance, those individuals who have bisexual identity normally prefer one sex over another. This in turn even results into abusive behavior where an individual exhibits sexual behavior forcefully. It is stated that sexual orientation has an impact on mindset of individuals as they conduct inappropriate behavior due to this factor. The sexual orientation has a strong relation with traumatic behavior as it indicates the comfort level of an individual with a person belonging to same gender or opposite gender. In many cases it has been witnessed that person suffer from disassociation disorder whereby he or she is not able to closely relate with others. This form of disorder is mainly observed in those individuals those who are homosexual, heterosexual or asexual. On the other hand, there are even diseases such as HIV which are associated with such form of disorder. These diseases tend to detach individuals more from the society. In majority cases out of fear individuals do not disclose such problems and in due course of time negatively impact other person. These situations are best handled through proper parental support as children or young adults those who are major victims can disclose such problems only in front of their parents. Parental network is necessary in order to initiate in victims of child sexual abuse a sense of security and attachment. These two factors are essential as it safeguards a child from the negative consequences which is caused by child sexual abuse (Whetten, Leserman, Lowe, Stangl, Thielman, Swartz & Van Scoyoc, 2006, pp. 1028). There lies a great deal of significance of parental and peer support as it transforms negative attitude present within sexually abused victims into positive attitude. It can be stated that this form of support tends to eliminate the probable outcomes of child sexual abuse that is generally experienced in adulthood. On the other hand, many researchers has gained a lot from such recognition as it enables them to create a framework which would help victims to overcome traumatic situation. As stated by Moreno (2007), the incidents of being sexually abused lead a child towards participating in such activities which are likely to cause HIV or any other harmful diseases. There is a huge amount of risk linked with such activities as it results into long term health issues. The relationship between HIV and child sexual abuse is often not taken into consideration by practitioners belonging to this field or by healthcare providers. There are cases in which an individual’s has been abused due to inappropriate socio-economic circumstances. For instance, a Latina woman was sexually abused during her childhood and this indicates a correlation between structural and cultural factors. The cultural aspects play a vital role in this form of abusive behavior and this is prevalent in a culture which is more male dominant. On the other hand, social factors majorly represent the flexibility present within a society or rather the fundamental rights that are freely exercised by females (Moreno, 2007, pp. 340-352). According to Mcnally, Clancy, Barrett & Parker (2004), the victims due to social constraints fear to talk about various aspects related to sexually abuse or their traumatic memories. In professional or educational field it has been noticed that individuals do not reveal such cases as they have fear of being dismissed or getting low grades in an examination. This kind of fear puts a person into an odd situation where it becomes difficult to share incidents and derive certain solution. The victims who have been sexually abused in their childhood might possess large degree of coping style but in majority cases they do not possess required ability for coping against child sexual abuse in adulthood (Mcnally, Clancy, Barrett & Parker, 2004, pp. 479-493). In this situation specifically there is a need for trauma treatment so that victims are not only able to eradicate memories related to the incident but even live a better life. This particular study on sexual abuse trauma comprises of different factors that leads to condition where the victim is unable to react appropriately to changing conditions. However the three major discussion questions for this study are – what is the impact caused by sexual abuse on children, till what extent sexual abuse trauma can be cured, and what is the significance of parental support in the entire procedure. The views of different authors are aligned with these three discussion questions. On the other hand, it can even be stated that this study stresses more on the probable reasons which lead to sexual abuse cases. There is a great scope for future research on this particular topic. The rate of sexual abuse cases is rapidly increasing across the globe. In many scenarios there are effective steps taken by the government of respective countries but there still lies loopholes which need to be eliminated from the system. This can be the major area of study in future years enabling the scope for further research study on cases of sexual abuse trauma. The initiatives taken by non-governmental organizations in this field is centered towards providing better health facilities to victims and even encouraging parents to come forward in order to support their children who has been sexually abused. Conclusion As per the study, different authors have put across varied opinions regarding sexual abuse trauma. According to some authors anxiety or trauma caused by sexual abuse is not similar for males and females. It has been stated that often females are witnessed to commit suicide upon being abused in comparison to males. The rate of suicide cases which are increasing across the world is due to increasing number of sexual abuse cases and liberty given to individuals who perform such illegal activities. It is even observed that victims of such cases do not proclaim the incident out of fear that they will not be accepted in the society. The probable reasons behind these activities are the degree of sexual orientation. On the other hand, in the present scenario there has been various trauma treatment developed that focus on eliminating the fear component so that victims as well as their family members can lead a better life. This kind of treatment comprises of various sessions where the victim and parents are attended separately. The entire procedure helps in developing required interpersonal skills and encourages parents to support their children to overcome all traumatic memories. In this study, there has been different diseases outlined that has a negative impact on victims. These diseases mainly comprise of HIV and it not only affects the victim but even is harmful for other people who are in contact. References Aspelmeier, J. E., Elliott, A. N., & Smith, C. H. (2007). Childhood sexual abuse, attachment, and trauma symptoms in college females: The moderating role of attachment. Child abuse & neglect, 31(5), 549-566. Dube, S. R., Anda, R. F., Whitfield, C. L., Brown, D. W., Felitti, V. J., Dong, M., & Giles, W. H. (2005). Long-term consequences of childhood sexual abuse by gender of victim. American journal of preventive medicine, 28(5), 430-438. Filipas, H. H., & Ullman, S. E. (2006). Child sexual abuse, coping responses, self-blame, posttraumatic stress disorder, and adult sexual revictimization. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21(5), 652-672. Kalichman, S. C., Gore-Felton, C., Benotsch, E., Cage, M., & Rompa, D. (2004). Trauma symptoms, sexual behaviors, and substance abuse: Correlates of childhood sexual abuse and HIV risks among men who have sex with men. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 13(1), 1-15. Mcnally, R., Clancy, S., Barrett, H., & Parker, H. (2004). Inhibiting retrieval of trauma cues in adults reporting histories of childhood sexual abuse. Cognition and Emotion, 18(4), 479-493. Moreno, C. L. (2007). The relationship between culture, gender, structural factors, abuse, trauma, and HIV/AIDS for Latinas. Qualitative health research, 17(3), 340-352. Roberts, R., O’Connor, T., Dunn, J., & Golding, J. (2004). The effects of child sexual abuse in later family life; mental health, parenting and adjustment of offspring. Child abuse & neglect, 28(5), 525-545. Whetten, K., Leserman, J., Lowe, K., Stangl, D., Thielman, N., Swartz, M., & Van Scoyoc, L. (2006). Prevalence of childhood sexual abuse and physical trauma in an HIV-positive sample from the deep south. American journal of public health, 96(6), 1028. Read More