Recovery from Sexual Abuse
The Journal of Mental Health Counseling has an interesting article discussing factors that help children recover from sexual abuse. The focus of the article is "transgenerational trauma and child sexual abuse," but it has a very helpful section summarizing recent research into factors that aid a child's recovery from abuse. Those factors include:
• Self-perception. When children think their pre-abuse lives were positive, they are more likely to have a positive self-image after the abuse.
• Reaction of support network. When adults around the child deny the abuse or support the perpetrator, children are at greater risk for negative symptoms.
• Emotional support . Children who receive support from their primary caregivers show fewer symptoms than children who lack that support. One study suggests that maternal support is a more important factor than the nature of the abuse or the child's relationship to the offender.
Hat tip: The Phrenologist's Notebook
