How Do Childhood and Parental Anxiety Features Affect the Consequences of Child Sexual Abuse?

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to investigate the anxiety features of children who experience child sexual abuse (CSA) and their parents, along with the features and consequences of sexual abuse in the environment of Child Advocacy Centers (CAC). The sample of this study comprised 150 children affected by CSA and one of their parents who were admitted to İzmir CAC between June 2016 and November 2016.The children-age range 9 to 13 years-and one of their parents were asked to complete the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory separately. The children also completed the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI). During psychiatric evaluations of the children, sociodemographic characteristics and features of sexual abuse were noted and all psychiatric conditions were examined. The statistical analyses yielded significant correlations between the STAI scores of the parents and STAI-C and CASI scores of the children. There were statistically significant differences between the CASI scores, STAI-C subscale scores, and STAI subscale scores according to some variables of CSA along with their psychiatric diagnosis. Our findings showed that having higher anxiety sensitivity and trait anxiety levels and having parents with higher trait anxiety might be considered as risk factors for being diagnosed as having a psychiatric disorder due to CSA.

KEYWORDS:

• Child sexual abuse
• state anxiety
• trait anxiety
• anxiety sensitivity
• psychiatric evaluation

Disclosure of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest to report.

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committees on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Consent to analyze the case files was obtained from all participating services and local ethic committee (Protocol No: 2016/85, Decision No: 2016/09-02).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sevay Alşen Güney

Sevay Alşen Güney, MD, Associated Professor, is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry specialist at Dr. Behçet Uz Children’s Hospital in İzmir and Consultant Physician of the Child Advocacy Center, İzmir Turkey.

Özlem Bağ

Özlem Bağ, MD, Associated Professor, is a Pediatrics specialist at Dr. Behçet Uz Children’s Hospital in İzmir and Medical Director of Child Advocacy Center, İzmir Turkey.

Hasan Kaya

Hasan Kaya, Psychologist, is a Forensic Interviewer and Sevi Arıer Arısın, Child Development Specialist is a Forensic Interviewer at Dr. Behçet Uz Children’s Hospital in İzmir Turkey.

Sevi Arıer Arısın

Sevi Arıer Arısın, Child Development Specialist, is a Forensic Interviewer at Dr. Behçet Uz Children's Hospital in İzmir Turkey.