Effects of sexual abuse on minors
The majority of experts believe that CSA is innately harmful to minors.
A wide range of psychological, emotional, physical, and social effects
has been attributed to child sexual abuse, including anxiety,
depression, obsession, compulsion, grief, post-traumatic stress
disorder symptoms such as flashbacks, emotional numbing,
pseudo-maturity symptoms, and other more general dysfunctions such as
sexual dysfunction, social dysfunction, dysfunction of relationships,
poor education and employment records, eating disorders,
self-mutilation, and a range of physical symptoms common to some other
forms of PTSD, such as sensual numbness, and loss of appetite (see
Smith et al., 1995). Additionally, young females who are victims of
abuse may encounter additional trauma by pregnancy and birth
complications.
Some studies have reached other conclusions about CSA. For example, a
1982 meta-analysis by Mary DeYoung reported that 20% of her "victims"
appeared to be "virtually indifferent to their molestation" and instead
tended to be traumatized by the reaction of adults to its discovery.
[2] Most notably, a controversial meta-analytic study of other various
studies of CSA, Rind et al. (1998), found only a weak correlation
between age-discrepant sexual contact as a minor and the later
stability of the minor's adult psyche, noted that a significant
percentage reported their reactions to age-discrepant sexual contact as
positive in the short term, and found the confounding variable of poor
family environment as a plausible cause for the majority of negative
effects. Although the study stated in its conclusion that "the findings
of the current review do not imply that moral or legal definitions of
or views on behaviors currently classified as CSA should be abandoned
or even altered," (Rind et al., 1998, p. 47), it on one hand drew
widespread outrage from conservative activists, and on the other hand
was often cited as supporting evidence by pedophile activists.
The percentage of adults suffering from long-term effects is unknown.
Smith quotes a British study that showed that 13% of adults sexually
abused as minors suffered from long-term consequences.
Wakefield and Underwager (1991) note the difference between CSA
experiences of males and females, where more males than females report
the experience as neutral or positive, saying that "It may be that
women perceive such experiences as sexual violation, while men perceive
them as sexual initiation." Draucker (1992) contested this finding,
arguing that sexual abuse against both boys and girls had similar
effects, and that "initiation" was part of the myth that males are
always the initiators of sex and cannot be abused.
More recent studies indicate that sexual abuse in children can lead to
the overexitation of an undeveloped limbic system[3]. This could
explain the problems sexual abuse victims have with regulation of mood
and other limbic functions, especially as exhibited in borderline
personality disorder. Other studies also indicate sexual abuse can lead
to temporal lobe epilepsy, damage to the cerebellar vermis, along with
reduced size of the corpus callosum.
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