Post-traumatic stress in sexually abused, physically abused, and nonabused children

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Abstract

This investigation compared the rates of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms across sexually abused, physically abused, and nonabused psychiatrically hospitalized children matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Among the sexually abused children, 20.7% met diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder compared with 6.9% of the physically abused and 10.3% of the nonabused children. Although these overall rates were not significantly different across groups, they were sufficiently high to reinforce the need for further study of post-traumatic stress in childhood. Further, significant symptom rate differences across groups were found with respect to specific post-traumatic stress symptoms. Specifically, sexually abused children exhibited significantly higher rates of inappropriate sexual behaviors than either the physically abused or nonabused children. In addition, both the sexually abused and physically abused groups showed a tendency to exhibit more avoidant/dissociative symptoms as compared to the nonabused children. Results are discussed in terms of their clinical and research implications.

Résumé

Les auteurs comparent la prévalence de troubles affectifs post-traumatiques chez des enfants appariés pour l'âge, le sexe et le statut socio-économique. Un certain nombre de ces enfants ont subi des sévices sexuels, d'autres des sévices physiques et enfin, le troisième groupe sont des enfants hospitalisés dans des services de psychiatrie n'ayant pas été victimes de violence. Parmi les enfants victimes de sévices sexuels, le 20.7% pouvait être classé comme répondant aux critères diagnostiques pour des troubles affectifs post-traumatiques, alors que le 6.9% seulement de ceux qui avaient subi des sévices physiques et le 10.3% des enfants non victimes de violence présentaient de tels troubles. Ces taux de prévalence ne diffèrent pas significativement d'un groupe à l'autre mais étaient tout de même suffisamment élevés pour que l'on s'efforce d'étudier davantage la problématique des troubles affectifs post-traumatiques chez les enfants. Par ailleurs, on a trouvé des différences significatives de symptomes en comparant les groupes les uns aux autres, en ce qui concerne particulièrement les symptomes spécifiquement post-traumatiques. C'est ainsi que les enfants victimes de sévices sexuels ont présenté des taux plus élevés de comportement sexuel inapproprié comparés aux enfants ayant été victimes de violence physique ou pas victimes de violence du tout. En plus, à la fois les enfants victimes de sévices sexuels et de sévices physiques ont présenté une tendance aux symptomes d'évitement et aux symptomes dissociatifs comparés aux enfants n'ayant pas subi de violence. De ces résultats découlent des conséquences pour la clinique et la recherche.

Resumen

Esta investigación comparó la proporción de síntomas de Trastorno Post-Traumático de Tensión en niños sexual/físicamente abusados y en niños no abusados-todos psiquiatricamente hospitalizados-equiparados con respecto a la edad, el sexo y la posición socio-económica. De los niños sexualmente abusados, 20.7% satisfacieron los criterios diagnósticos con respecto al Trastorno Post-Traumático de Tensión, en comparación con 6.9% de los niños físicamente abusados y 10.3% de los niños no abusados. Aunque estas proporciones no fueron significativamente diferentes en los diferentes grupos, fueron lo suficientemente elevadas como para reforzar la necesidad de continuar la investigación del Trastorno Post-Traumático de Tención en la niñez. Asimismo, diferencias significativas fueron encontradas entre los diferentes grupos con respecto a la proporción de sintomas específicos al Trastorno Post-Traumático de Tensión. Especificamente, los niños sexualmente abusados exhibieron una proporción (significamente) más elevada de conductas sexuales impropias que los niños fisicamente abusados y los niños no abusados. Asimismo, tanto el grupo de niños sexualmente abusados como el grupo de niños físicamente abusados exhibieron una tendencia mayor a la ocurrencia de síntomas de carácter disociativo/evitación que el grupo de niños no abusados. Se comentan las implicaciones de los resultados para la práctica clínica y la investigación científica.

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Presented at the 21 st Annual Convention of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Boston, November 14,1987.

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