The active role of the victim in child sexual abuse: Consequences in adolescence

Journal title MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA
Author/s Rachele Maria Valentini
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2022/3
Language Italian Pages 21 P. 107-127 File size 206 KB
DOI 10.3280/MAL2022-003006
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This study aims to investigate whether in adolescence actively participating in sexual abuse actions (“engaging in sexual acts” such as the induction or coercion of the victim to engage in practices like stimulation of the abuser’s genitals, oral/anal intercourse and erotic perfor-mances in order to satisfy the sexual desires of the perpetrator) leads to a greater aggrava-tion, in terms of cognitive processing of the abusive experience and the development of traumatic emotions of shame, guilt and learned helplessness, compared to passively under-going sexual violence. Thirty-two depositions of adolescent victims of sexual abuse, with an average age at the time of hearing of 14 years (SD = 1.72; range = 11-17 years), were analyzed. To examine the traumatic cognitions and emotions associated with the sexual abuse, the depositions were verbatim analyzed through the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2001). The results confirm that in adolescence, active par-ticipation in the dynamics of sexual abuse is more connected to difficulties in cognitive pro-cessing of the traumatic events that occurred, with an important and significant contribution from particularly harmful traumatic emotions, such as shame, guilt and learned helpless-ness.

Keywords: child sexual abuse; adolescence; trauma; emotion; cognitions

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Rachele Maria Valentini, Il ruolo attivo della vittima in caso di abuso sessuale: conseguenze in adolescenza in "MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA" 3/2022, pp 107-127, DOI: 10.3280/MAL2022-003006