Citation

Wright J, Friedrich W, Cinq-Mars C, Cyr M, McDuff P. Violence Vict. 2004; 19(6): 627-643.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal Montreal, Quebec, Canada. john.wright@umontreal.ca

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16004066

Abstract

Self-destructive and delinquent behaviors were assessed in three samples of adolescent females. The first sample (N=140) were substantiated victims of sexual abuse recruited from clinical settings. They were contrasted to a second sample (N=430) of secondary school students, and a third sample from the same school setting (N=94), that reported that they had been sexually abused. Few differences were found between the two groups of sexually abused girls, and both groups reported significantly more at-risk behaviors than nonabused girls. Family adversity was a consistent predictor of both self-destructive and delinquent behaviors. However, violence during the abuse, lower quality mother-daughter relationships, and depression were also related to self-destructive behaviors, while family economic problems and self-blame for the abuse were the only correlates of delinquent behavior.