Citation

Wamser-Nanney R, Sager JC, Campbell CL. J. Child Sex. Abus. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10538712.2020.1733160

PMID

32125250

Abstract

Maternal support and abuse severity are often considered to be vital factors in predicting children's functioning following childhood sexual abuse (CSA); however, much of the prior research has examined support and abuse severity as main effects, without consideration of how these factors may interrelate to predict children's post-CSA functioning. Further, even though mediators and moderators are conceptually distinct, maternal support has been theorized to be both a mediator and a moderator of symptoms, and it is unclear if support acts as either among sexually abused children. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether caregiver-reported maternal support mediates or moderates the relationships between sexual abuse severity and children's trauma-related symptoms. The study included 235 treatment-seeking children ages 3-16 (M = 8.85, SD = 3.77) and their non-offending mothers. Contrary to expectations, caregiver-rated maternal support did not mediate nor moderate the relationship between abuse severity and children's symptoms (range r² =.002 -.03). Caregiver-rated maternal support may play a small role in mitigating sexually abused children's trauma symptoms. Irrespective of abuse severity, children with less supportive mothers may not be at heightened risk for experiencing higher levels of trauma-related difficulties.

Language: en

Keywords

Maternal support; PTSD symptoms; abuse severity; children’s symptoms; sexual abuse