Relationship of personal, familial, and abuse-specific factors with outcome following childhood sexual abuse

An examination of the literature on factors related to outcome following child sexual abuse (CSA) revealed many factors that may contribute to symptoms displayed by victims. Factors are divided into three categories: Personal Factors, Familial Factors, and Abuse-Specific Factors. Personal factors are those inherent to the victim, including age, gender, developmental disability, attributions regarding the abuse, and treatment following abuse. Familial factors are defined as those factors associated with other family members. These include parental history of abuse, parental reaction to the disclosure, parental support of the victim, parental mental health, family stress, and treatment following abuse for the parent and other family members. Finally, factors related to the abuse are delineated, including severity of abuse, duration of the abuse, and victim–perpetrator relationship. Directions for future research are discussed.

Research highlights►Children who have experienced childhood sexual abuse present with unique outcomes.►Outcomes are related to multiple factors.►These include personal, familial, and abuse-specific factors.