Coping strategies and social support as mediators of consequences in childsexual abuse victims

Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the mediator ro le of coping strategies and social support on the adaptation of children fo llowing CSA. Empirical studies indicate that short-term consequences of chi ld sexual abuse (CSA) are multiple and varied (Kendall-Tackett, Williams, & Finkelhor, 1993; Wolfe & Birt, 1995). While abuse-related characteristics were first studied to explain the variability of CSA outcome, more recently , the influence of other variables such as coping strategies and social sup port have been considered. Method: Fifty sexually abused children aged between 7 and 12 participated i n this study. The Chad Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991) and the Perceiv ed Competence Scale for Children (Harter, 1985) were used to measure victim s' adjustment. Coping strategies were evaluated by the Self-Report Coping S cale (Causey & Dubow, 1992) and the children completed the perceived Social Support (Harter, 1985). A French version of the History of Victimization ( Wolfe, Gentile, & Bourdeau, 1987) was used to gather abuse-related characte ristics from medical records. Results: Results indicate that sexually abused children exhibit internalizi ng and externalizing behavior problems following CSA. Coping strategies and social support exert direct effects on victims' adjustment instead of the mediator influences originally expected. Among abuse-related variables, onl y the perpetrator's identity is directly related to internalizing symptoms. Conclusions: The absence of mediational effects of coping and social suppor t is discussed in light of the measures used and the cross-sectional nature of the study. Results highlight the importance of parental implication and the consideration of coping strategies in designing therapeutic interventi ons with this population. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.