This is a continuation of grant R01 MH49885, """"""""Adaption to sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence."""""""" Although sexually abused children vary widely in their adjustment, limited work is available on processes that can help explain individual differences in symptomatology. Our research examines variations in children's adjustment to the trauma of sexual abuse as a function of shame and attribution style measured at the time of discovery and as they develop through adolescence and into adulthood. Greater shame for the abuse and self-blaming attribution style should be related to more psychological distress including more symptoms of depression. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), problems with sexuality and substance abuse, and dissociation. Although at the time of abuse discovery, shame and self-blame vary as a function of abuse severity, over time these process variables are more likely to become related to risk (e.g, stress events) and protective (e.g., support) factors than to the abuse. We propose to examine the extent to which risk and protective factors are related to shame and self-blame which in turn are hypothesized to be related to symptomatology. The currently funded study (spanning childhood to middle adolescence) has maintained a sample of 160 participants. We propose to follow the current sample of children and adolescents. Studies of children, with few exceptions, have looked at immediate impact or followed abuse victims for a year or less. Following this sample from adolescence into adulthood will allow us to examine the extent to which initial and subsequent patterns of shame and a self-blaming attribution style explain variations in later problems. This study has important implications for the development of theory and research based treatment strategies. The greatest potential for designing effective interventions is to study the mechanisms that explain how children and adolescents become symptomatic and the developmental nature and course of such symptoms, as well as differences in how individuals process their sexual abuse.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01MH049885-06A2
Application #
2841732
Study Section
Violence and Traumatic Stress Review Committee (VTS)
Program Officer
Boyce, Cheryl A
Project Start
1993-09-01
Project End
2004-05-31
Budget Start
1999-06-01
Budget End
2000-05-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
605799469
City
Newark
State
NJ
Country
United States
Zip Code
07107
Simon, Valerie A; Feiring, Candice; Cleland, Charles M (2016) Early Stigmatization, PTSD, and Perceived Negative Reactions of Others Predict Subsequent Strategies for Processing Child Sexual Abuse. Psychol Violence 6:112-123
Simon, Valerie A; Smith, Erin; Fava, Nicole et al. (2015) Positive and Negative Posttraumatic Change Following Childhood Sexual Abuse Are Associated With Youths' Adjustment. Child Maltreat 20:278-90
Feiring, Candice; Cleland, Charles M; Simon, Valerie A (2010) Abuse-specific self-schemas and self-functioning: a prospective study of sexually abused youth. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 39:35-50
Simon, Valerie A; Feiring, Candice; Kobielski McElroy, Sarah (2010) Making meaning of traumatic events: youths' strategies for processing childhood sexual abuse are associated with psychosocial adjustment. Child Maltreat 15:229-41
Feiring, Candice; Simon, Valerie A; Cleland, Charles M (2009) Childhood sexual abuse, stigmatization, internalizing symptoms, and the development of sexual difficulties and dating aggression. J Consult Clin Psychol 77:127-37
Simon, Valerie A; Feiring, Candice (2008) Sexual anxiety and eroticism predict the development of sexual problems in youth with a history of sexual abuse. Child Maltreat 13:167-81
Feiring, Candice; Cleland, Charles (2007) Childhood sexual abuse and abuse-specific attributions of blame over 6 years following discovery. Child Abuse Negl 31:1169-86
Feiring, Candice; Miller-Johnson, Shari; Cleland, Charles M (2007) Potential pathways from stigmatization and internalizing symptoms to delinquency in sexually abused youth. Child Maltreat 12:220-32
Feiring, Candice (2005) Emotional development, shame, and adaptation to child maltreatment. Child Maltreat 10:307-10
Feiring, Candice; Taska, Lynn S (2005) The persistence of shame following sexual abuse: a longitudinal look at risk and recovery. Child Maltreat 10:337-49

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