Child Sexual Abuse, Sexual Anxiety, and Sexual Satisfaction: The Role of Self-Capacities

Abstract

Research indicates that child sexual abuse produces lasting alterations in interpersonal relatedness, identity, and affect regulation, often referred to as self-capacity disturbance. Child sexual abuse also has been shown to negatively impact sexual functioning. This study examined the role of altered self-capacities in mediating the relationship between child sexual abuse and sexual responses. Path analysis revealed that child sexual abuse was related to sexual anxiety and decreased sexual satisfaction through its association with reduced self-awareness and a propensity to be involved in difficult interpersonal relationships.

Keywords:

• affect dysregulation
• child maltreatment
• identity
• interpersonal conflicts
• sexual adjustment

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported in part by grants from Fonds de recherche du Québec–Santé (FRQS) and the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Intimate Relationship Problems and Sexual Abuse (CRIPCAS).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noémie Bigras

Noémie Bigras, MA, is a PhD student in psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) in Montreal, Canada. Her current research interests focus on the repercussions of child sexual abuse on adult marital and sexual adjustment.

Natacha Godbout

Natacha Godbout, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Sexology and external professor of psychology at University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) in Montreal, Canada. She is also a permanent researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Intimate Relationship Problems and Sexual Abuse (CRIPCAS). Her research and clinical work center on the impacts of child maltreatment on adult interpersonal and psychological functioning and the exploration of variables that mediate the relationship between interpersonal trauma and psychosocial adjustment.

John Briere

John Briere, PhD, is an associate professor of psychiatry and psychology, director of the Psychological Trauma Program at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, and center director of the USC Adolescent Trauma Training Center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. He also teaches in the Burn Unit and Inpatient Psychiatric Service at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center.