NCJ Number
129857
Journal
Journal of Pediatric Psychology Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1986) Pages: 47-57
Date Published
1986
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The Child Behavior Checklist was administered to a sample of 85 children ages 3 to 12 who had been sexually abused within the past 2 years to determine what percentage of the sample could be described as exhibiting internalizing or externalizing behaviors. Correlations between abuse characteristics and internalizing, externalizing, or sexualized behaviors were analyzed.
Abstract
The findings suggest that a larger than expected number of children displayed significant behavior problems. However, the study did not account for problems which existed prior to the abuse or which were caused by the child's home environment. Internalizing behaviors including depression, anxiety, and insomnia were related to frequency of abuse, child's gender, relationship of the perpetrator to the child, and severity of abuse. Aggression, cruelty, hyperactivity, delinquency, and other externalizing behaviors were related to duration of abuse, perpetrator-child relationship, time elapsed since the abuse, and the child's gender. Sexual problems behaviors were associated with frequency of abuse and number of perpetrators. Other factors which should be subjects of future research include the affective relationship between perpetrator and victim, the degree to which the child is further victimized by the system's response to the abuse, and the quality of the home environment and the mother-child relationship. 3 tables and 11 references (Author abstract modified)