Characteristics of Childhood Sexual Abuse among Female Survivors in Therapy

Characteristics of the abuse experienced by 135 women entering an outpatient treatment program for survivors of childhood sexual abuse were assessed utilizing a structured clinical interview. Areas assessed included: nature, frequency and duration of the abuse; participant\u27s age at onset of abuse; perpetrator characteristics; childhood physical abuse experiences; and circumstances leading to abuse cessation. Participants who had been molested by more than one perpetrator were administered questions about the abuse committed by each perpetrator separately. Abuse by the first individual to molest a participant was found to be more likely to be incestuous, of higher frequency, and more extensive and invasive than that by later perpetrators. Survivors seeking therapy indicated experiencing considerably more severe abuse, at a younger age, for longer duration, and at the hands of more perpetrators than previously reported in the literature on nonclinical samples of survivors

Relationship between Childhood Sexual Abuse Characteristics and Dissociation among Women in Therapy

This study investigated the relationship between 10 characteristics of childhood sexual abuse and dissociation in adulthood. A structured clinical interview, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, and the Dissociation Subscale of the Symptom Checklist 90 - Revised were administered to 118 women survivors seeking psychotherapy. Separate stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted for each dissociation scale to determine which abuse characteristics were predictive of dissociation. In both analyses, the same four variables were significantly related to dissociation: age at onset, coercive sexual acts, objectifying sexual acts, and concurrent multiple perpetrators. Implications of findings for future research and clinical practice are explored