Citation

Carlson MW, Oshri A. Child Maltreat. 2018; 23(4): 387-398.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077559518779755

PMID

29888624

Abstract

Researchers found that sexual abuse in childhood leads to increased adolescent depressive symptomatology, though this link may vary due to the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator as well as the age of the child when the abuse began. A sample of 444 sexually abused youth provided data for the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being I. Growth mixture modeling was used to identify trajectories of depressive symptoms and test the effects of parental perpetration and age of abuse onset.

RESULTS supported the following three growth trajectories of depressive symptoms in adolescence: falling, rising, and flat. Youth who were sexually abused by a parent were more likely to follow the rising and falling trajectories. Also, youth who experienced sexual abuse at a younger age were more likely to be classified in the falling trajectory.

FINDINGS can inform intervention programming on the links between sexual abuse characteristics and subsequent patterns of adolescent depressive symptomology.

Language: en

Keywords

abusive parents; child maltreatment; child sexual abuse; childhood sexual abuse; depressive symptoms; sexual abuse