Background: Child sexual abuse is a complex life experience and it is
associated with depression. Sexually abused children cope with the experiences
differently. Depression is a major mental health concern worldwide. There is no
previous local study on screening for depression and coping strategies used in
child sexual abuse in Malaysia.
Objectives: This study aimed to describe the psychosocial factors and coping
strategies used and its association with depression in sexually abused children.
Methods: The study consisted of 2 stages. First, the validation of the Malay
version of COl and followed by a cross sectional study of depression and coping
strategies used, participated by 65 sexually abused children and adolescents
attending HUSM. The following measures were used: general questionnaire,
semi-structured questionnaire of coping strategies and the validated Malay
version-COl. Depression was defined as score above the optimum cut-off point
on Malay version-COl determined at the validation study.
Results: The validation study showed that at the cut-off score of 18, the COl
had 90% sensitivity and 98% specificity in detecting depression.
In the study sample, 16 (24.6%) participants had been depressed and 49
(75.4%) participants had not been depressed. In coping strategies, 57 (87.7%)
used emotion-focused coping strategies, 6 (9.2%) used problem or task-focused
coping strategies and 2 (3.1 %) used both emotion and problem-focused. Among
emotion-focused coping strategies, participants used (i) deciding than nothing
can be done to change things, (ii) denial and (iii) suppression.
Conclusion: The screening of depression in the vulnerable group such as child
sexual abuse was important, as for early detection and treatment. By recognizing
the coping strategies used in sexually abused children, it can be helpful for
clinician and counselor in their counseling session
