APPRAISALS OF CUMULATIVE CHILDHOOD ADVERSITY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE
Open Access
- Author:
- Henry, Sarah
- Graduate Program:
- Criminology (MA)
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- August 08, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Michelle Frisco, Program Head/Chair
Sarah Anne Font, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Richard B Felson, Committee Member
Jeremy Staff, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- adverse childhood experiences
child sexual abuse
appraisal
cumulative adversity
child maltreatment - Abstract:
- Existing studies of childhood adverse experiences examine the presence of multiple adversities to better understand the effect of individual adverse events and to assess their cumulative impact on mental and physical health. While these studies display the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and physical/mental health, few of these studies consider the respondent’s emotional reaction/appraisal of adversities to understand the differential impact adversities may have on the subject. Adversities occur under various circumstances, and the perceived impact of adverse events is highly subjective. Child sexual abuse (CSA) is an adversity thought to be among the most harmful and traumatic. It is common that children that experience sexual abuse often experience other forms of adversity or maltreatment as well. Not all victims of CSA see it as their worst or most traumatizing experience. Therefore, it is important to understand how victims of CSA perceive and react to their abuse. In this study, the data involves a group of women with substantiated experiences of child sexual abuse and a comparison group. This study examines the quantity, type, and appraisals to different adversities in comparison to CSA. First, results suggest that those who experience child sexual abuse are more likely to experience many and multiple forms of adversity. Second, respondents that experienced childhood sexual abuse label it as their worst adversity only 50 percent of the time. Third, there is notable difference in victims’ descriptions of their emotional reactions to adversity, with negative emotions being strongly correlated with child sexual abuse. This study suggests that more research is needed on appraisals of childhood adverse experiences to better understand the lasting impact of different types of adversity.