CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AS CORRELATES OF WOMENS ADJUSTMENT - A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY

Recent theoretical frameworks that explain the effects of childhood se xual abuse have encouraged the study of the associations between certa in characteristics of abusive experiences and mental health outcomes. The assessment of abuse characteristics, however, has created a new se t of methodological problems for measurement and analysis. This articl e presents findings on the associations between characteristics of abu se and mental health outcomes from a prospective study of 136 women. T he strongest associations were among the experience of physical force and a close victim-offender relationship during abuse and increased le vels of current mental health symptoms. Analyses were repeated for bot h prospective and retrospective accounts of the abuse incident, and th e pros and cons of these different sources of information are discusse d.