Evaluatingsociodemographic and Clinical Properties of Sexually Abused Children and Adolescents, Psychopatology and Associated Risk Factors

Objective:

The aim of this study was to examine sociodemographic variables, diagnostic distributions for psychiatric disorders, and factors associated with meeting the diagnostic criteria for any psychiatric disorder, among a sample of sexually abused children and adolescents that were refered to and being followed up by our child psychiatry outpatient unit.

Methods:

We performed a retrospective chart review of 140 children and adolescents between 3-18 years old that had been refered to Celal Bayar University Medical School Hospital’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department due to sexual abuse between 2013, January and 2016, March.

Results:

In total, data collected from 140 sexually abused children and adolescents were evaluated. The sample consisted of 123 girls (87.9%) and 17 boys (12.1%). Most common act of sexual abuse reported in the sample was inapproriate touching to the child’s body with the intent of sexual release (52.2%). The prevalance of being sexually abused by someone the child was familiar with, was 78.6% . Among all, 46.4%had reported penetration.There were multiple abusers in 15% of the cases and of the whole sample, 47.1% reported that they had been exposed to physical violence in addition to sexual abuse. Upon evaluation of diagnoses received by the sample following abuse, it was found that 60% met diagnostic criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder. Among the subsample diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, 77.4% had trauma-related disorder; 45.2% had depressive disorder, 11.9% had any anxiety disorder, 2.4% had substance-use disorder, and 1% had obsessive compulsive disorder, attention defi cit hyperactivity disorder and disruptive behavior disorderimpulse control disorder and conduct disorder. Factors associated signifi cantly with the odds of having received any psychiatric diagnosis within our sample were being between 13-18 years of age and positive history for being exposed to physical abuse.

Discussion:

Childhood sexual abuse might be considered as a type of trauma that would often yield to development of psychiatric problems. Elaborate determination of associated factors shall contribute greatly to guide the challenging follow up and treatment processes of these cases.