NCJ Number
103025
Date Published
1986
Length
10 pages
Annotation
In presenting a conceptual framework for the nature and structure of the experience of the child sexual abuse victim, this paper considers the phases of sexual abuse and recovery and the manner in which the child cognitively and emotionally processes the abuse experience.
Abstract
The phases of sexual abuse and recovery elicit varying responses from the victim depending on the factors characterizing the preabuse phase, the abuse phase, the disclosure phase, and the postdisclosure phase. The factors present in each of these phases determine the degree to which the child victim can successfully manage the traumatic events. The way in which the child cognitively processes the abusive event depends on the child's preabuse life history, beliefs and values, and the degree of stress conditions. Other factors that affect the child's cognitive processing of the event are the activities and conversations attending the abuse and the child's informational processing of the event. Typical child victim emotional reactions to sexual abuse are pervasive psychic efforts to avoid others' detection of the abuse; the diversion of mental attention away from the abuse (dissociation), sometimes producing ego fragmentation and drive disharmony; and the development of patterned responses to events. In using this conceptual framework, therapists should be aware that it does not allow the direct observation of the victim's cognitive processes, does not allow for intervening variables between victimization and response patterns, and does not account for the multiplicity of factors that may contribute to ego fragmentation and drive disharmony. 19 references.