Social Relationships in Sexually Abused Children: Self-Reports and Teachers’ Evaluation

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the social relationships of child victims of sexual abuse using both self-reports and teachers’ ratings. Participants were 93 child victims of sexual abuse and a comparison group of 75 nonvictims. Teachers’ assessments revealed that sexually abused children displayed greater social skill problems compared to same-age, nonabused peers and were more likely to display social difficulties nearing clinical levels. Analyses indicated that sexually abused children presented lower levels of interpersonal trust in people surrounding them yet a marginally higher level of trust in peers compared to nonabused children. Sense of loneliness and feeling different from peers did not differ between groups.

KEYWORDS:

• child sexual abuse
• social skills
• peers
• trust
• loneliness
• teacher ratings
• interpersonal adjustment

The authors gratefully thank the personnel of the Centre d’expertise Marie-Vincent, the Clinique de pédiatrie socio-juridique du CHU Ste-Justine, the Parents-Unis Lanaudiére and the Commission scolaire de Montréal. The authors also wish to thank the parents, children, and teachers for their collaboration to this project.

FUNDING

Work on this study was supported by doctoral fellowships awarded to the first author by the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC), the Chaire interuniversitaire Fondation Marie-Vincent sur les agressions sexuelles envers les enfants, the Équipe FQRSC Violence Sexuelle et Santé (ÉVISSA), and the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les problémes conjugaux et les agressions sexuelles (CRIPCAS). This research was supported by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR #77614) awarded to Martine Hébert.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claudia Blanchard-Dallaire

Claudia Blanchard-Dallaire is a doctoral candidate in the psychology department of the Université du Québec à Montréal in Montréal, Québec, Canada. She is a clinician at the Centre d’expertise Marie-Vincent in Montreal.

Martine Hébert

Martine Hébert, PhD, is a full professor in the sexology department of the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her research interests center around the diversity of profiles in children and teenager victims of sexual abuse or interpersonal trauma.