To assess current psychological functioning, participants were administered the Derogatis Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, the Modified Fear Survey, and the Impact of Event Scale. Results indicated that childhood sexual abuse victims could be distinguished from nonvictims by a pattern of elevated anxiety, heightened interpersonal sensitivity, increased anger problems, more paranoid ideation, and increased obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The age at which sexual assault took place was related to current adult functioning, with women assaulted in adolescence displaying greater elevations in hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anxiety, and paranoid ideation than nonvictims. Women sexually abused early in childhood displayed only elevated anxiety as adults, although they also showed significantly more psychological symptoms on a global mental health measure than did nonvictims. Revictimization was strongly related to increased symptomatology. 33 references and 6 tables. (Author abstract modified)
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