Child sexual abuse and mental health difficulties
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Page: 392-398
Damanjit Sandhu and Kirandeep Kaur (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab) Dimpy Mahanta (Department of Psychology, Cotton University, Guwahati, Assam)
Child sexual abuse is a significant global issue. Research supports strong association between sexual abuse among children and poor mental health. Considering the Chronicity of sexual abuse among children in the North-Eastern parts of India and its deleterious impact on their mental health, it is important to study this issue among the North-Eastern children. Thus, the current study aimed at studying the association of sexual abuse experiences among children with various mental health difficulties. The difference in the mental health of children with sexual abuse experiences and the controls (children with no sexual abuse experiences) was also studied. The sample for the present research comprised of 550 early adolescents (275 males & 275 females) of age ranging from12 to 15 years randomly selected from various schools nearby different tea estates of Assam majorly catering to the children of tea garden workers. Children coming from various tea gardens constituted the sample for the present study. The participant adolescents were screened for having sexual abuse experiences to obtain a sample of 42 adolescents (13 males & 29 females) having a history of sexual abuse with the help of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire by Berstein and Fink (1998). An equal number (13 males & 29 females) were selected in the control group matched on significant aspects like age, sex, socio-economic status, parental education etc. A measure of mental health difficulties viz. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) by Goodman (2005) was administered to the sample to study their mental health. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-test were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that sexual abuse experiences are positively associated with various mental health difficulties and that there exists a significant difference in the sexual abuse victims and the controls in terms of various mental health difficulties. Children in the sexual abuse victims group (SA) exhibited higher emotional problems, conduct problems and peer problems than children in the control group. It can be concluded from the results of this study that child sexual abuse is associated with problems in children’s psychosocial development, particularly increased mental health difficulties.
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Page: 392-398
Damanjit Sandhu and Kirandeep Kaur (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab) Dimpy Mahanta (Department of Psychology, Cotton University, Guwahati, Assam)