The impact of sexual abuse on female development: lessons from a multigenerational, longitudinal research study.
01 May 2011-Development and Psychopathology (Cambridge University Press)-Vol. 23, Iss: 2, pp 453-476
TL;DR: Results of many analyses indicated that sexually abused females (on average) showed deleterious sequelae across a host of biopsychosocial domains including: earlier onsets of puberty, cognitive deficits, depression, dissociative symptoms, maladaptive sexual development, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal attenuation, asymmetrical stress responses, high rates of obesity, more major illnesses and healthcare utilization.
Abstract: This is a report on the research design and findings of a 23-year longitudinal study of the impact of intrafamilial sexual abuse on female development. The conceptual framework integrated concepts of psychological adjustment with theory regarding how psychobiological factors might impact development. Participants included 6- to 16-year-old females with substantiated sexual abuse and a demographically similar comparison group. A cross-sequential design wasused andsix assessments have takenplace,with participantsat medianage 11 at thefirst assessment andmedianage25 at thesixthassessment. Mothers of participants took part in the early assessments and offspring took part at the sixth assessment. Results of many analyses, both within circumscribed developmental stages and across development, indicated that sexually abused females (on average) showed deleterious sequelae across a host of biopsychosocial domains including: earlier onsets of puberty, cognitive deficits, depression, dissociative symptoms, maladaptive sexual development, hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal attenuation, asymmetrical stress responses,high rates of obesity, more major illnesses and healthcare utilization, dropping out of high school, persistent posttraumatic stress disorder, self-mutilation, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnoses, physical and sexual revictimization, premature deliveries, teen motherhood, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence. Offspring born to abused mothers were at increased risk for child maltreatment and overall maldevelopment. There was also a pattern of considerable within group variability. Based on this complex network of findings, implications for optimal treatments are elucidated. Translational aspects of extending observational research into clinical practice are discussed in terms that will likely have a sustained impact on several major public health initiatives.
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01 Jul 2011
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336 citations
References
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TL;DR: For example, this article found a strong relationship between the breadth of exposure to abuse or household dysfunction during childhood and multiple risk factors for several of the leading causes of death in adults.
12,712 citations
TL;DR: The criteria outlined in "The Environment and Disease: Association or Causation?" help identify the causes of many diseases, including cancers of the reproductive system.
Abstract: In 1965, Austin Bradford Hill published the article "The Environment and Disease: Association or Causation?" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. In the article, Hill describes nine criteria to determine if an environmental factor, especially a condition or hazard in a work environment, causes an illness. The article arose from an inaugural presidential address Hill gave at the 1965 meeting of the Section of Occupational Medicine of the Royal Society of Medicine in London, England. The criteria he established in the article became known as the Bradford Hill criteria and the medical community refers to them when determining whether an environmental condition causes an illness. The criteria outlined in "The Environment and Disease: Association or Causation?" help identify the causes of many diseases, including cancers of the reproductive system.
6,992 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This paper contrasts Bradford Hill’s approach with a currently fashionable framework for reasoning about statistical associations – the Common Task Framework – and suggests why following Bradford Hill, 50+ years on, is still extraordinarily reasonable.
Abstract: In 1965, Sir Austin Bradford Hill offered his thoughts on: “What aspects of [an] association should we especially consider before deciding that the most likely interpretation of it is causation?” He proposed nine means for reasoning about the association, which he named as: strength, consistency, specificity, temporality, biological gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment, and analogy. In this paper, we look at what motivated Bradford Hill to propose we focus on these nine features. We contrast Bradford Hill’s approach with a currently fashionable framework for reasoning about statistical associations – the Common Task Framework. And then suggest why following Bradford Hill, 50+ years on, is still extraordinarily reasonable.
5,542 citations
Additional excerpts
...Short of a controlled study where sexual abuse is randomly assigned (which is beyond currently available methodologies and would be ethically unsound) such results mirror closely standards by which causal inference can be confidently asserted (Hill, 1965)....
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TL;DR: The Perceived Competence Scale for Children as mentioned in this paper is a self-report instrument for assessing a child's sense of competence across different domains, instead of viewing perceived competence as a unitary construct.
Abstract: HARTER, SUSAN. The Perceived Competence Scale for Children. CmILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 87-97. A new self-report instrument, the Perceived Competence Scale for Children, is described. Emphasis is placed on the assessment of a child's sense of competence across different domains, instead of viewing perceived competence as a unitary construct. 3 domains of competence, each constituting a separate subscale, were identified: (a) cognitive, (b) social, and (c) physical. A fourth subscale, general self-worth, independent of any particular skill domain, was included. A new question format was devised which provides a broader range of responses and reduces the tendency to give socially desirable responses. The psychometric properties of the scale are presented for third through ninth grades. Emphasis is placed on its factorial validity. Each subscale defines a separate factor, indicating that children make clear differentiations among these domains. The factor structure is extremely stable across this grade range. The scale is viewed as an alternative to those existing self-concept measures of questionable validity and reliability.
3,796 citations