Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Adults
Research indicates that childhood sexual abuse creates, more often than not, many long-term psychological difficulties that have the potential to impair social behavior and functioning (Abdulrehman and De Luca, p. 193). Such problems manifest differently in adults and may vary in tandem with the gender of the abuse victim, his or her age at the time of abuse, the type of abuse, and adult life circumstances. Among the myriad problems experienced by adults who have been victims of sexual abuse during their formative years are anxiety, fear, depression, self-hatred, alienation, and suicidal tendencies (Abdulrehman and De Luca, p. 194). This research report will explore the literature and investigate these effects.
Childhood sexual abuse is a problem that cuts across all racial/ethnic, social, and economic barriers to impact upon far too many vulnerable children (Coleman, pp. 523-524). More often than not, the victims of childhood sexual abuse tend to be female children who are physically assaulted by adult or adolescent males known to them or, in fact, members of their own intimate familial or social circles (Duncan and Williams, p. 765).
At the same time, young boys are sexually abused, more often by adult males, but occasionally by adult females. Duncan and Williams (p. 765) claim that the prevalence of sexual abuse among males may be as high as 16 percent nationally, whereas approximately 25 percent of all adult women may have been subjected to some type of sexual abuse as children. It is, however, important to recognize that the term "sexual abuse" encompasses a number of actions that can include sexual intercourse as well as less invasive or non-penetrating forms of sexual assault (i.e., fondling, inappropriate touching, verbal sexual abuse, sexual threats).
Additionally, as Duncan and Williams (p. 766) point out, sexual abuse of children by adult perpetrators is gen...