Abstract
Research conducted over the last two decades suggests that sexual abuse is both common in North American society and associated with a variety of subsequent psychological difficulties. Although not all child abuse appears to confer significant long-term effects, sequelae of childhood sexual abuse often documented in the literature include anxiety and depression (e.g., Bagley & Ramsay, 1986; Stein, Golding, Seigel, Burnham, & Sorenson, 1989), posttraumatic stress (e.g., Rowan, Foy, Rodriguez, & Ryan, 1994; Saunders, Villeponteaux, Lipovsky, Kilpatrick, & Veronen, 1992), dissociative symptoms (e.g., Briere, Elliott, Harris, & Cotman 1995; Chu & Dill, 1990), cognitive disturbance such as low self-esteem and helplessness (e.g., Gold, 1986; Jehu, Gazan, & Klassen, 1984-85), suicidality (e.g., Briere & Runtz, 1986; de Wilde, Klienhorst, Diekstra, & Wolters, 1992), substance abuse (e.g., Swett, Cohen, Surrey, Compaine, & Chavez, 1991; Rohsenow, Corbett, & Devine, 1988), sexual dysfunction (e.g., Becker, Skinner, Abel, & Treacy, 1982; Wyatt, Newcombe, & Riederle, 1993), interpersonal problems (e.g., Elliott, 1994; Herman, 1981) and personality disorders (Briere & Zaidi, 1989; Ogata, Silk, Goodrich, Lohr, Westen, & Hill, 1990).
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Briere, J., Read, J.D. (1997). An Integrated Approach to Treating Adults Abused as Children, with Specific Reference to Self-Reported Recovered Memories. In: Read, J.D., Lindsay, D.S. (eds) Recollections of Trauma. NATO ASI Series, vol 291. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2672-5_2
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