Impact of Additional Traumas on Symptoms in Sexually Abused Children

Our study sought to examine similar contributions of traumatic events beyond those experienced by sexually abused (SA) children. Specifically, the contribution of the additional stressors (i.e., in addition to sexual abuse) to the development of PTSD was studied. Participants were 125 sexually abused children, ages 6-12, and their parents. They were interviewed and assessed with a variety of measures.  Participants were 72% Caucasian and 28% African American”; 80% were female, 20% were male.   There was no significant difference between males and females for either the total number of traumatic events or of symptoms measured by parent- or self-report.  However, there was a significant difference by race for the sum of all traumatic events.  Specifically, African-American children experienced more total traumatic events than Caucasian children.  There also were significant correlations between the total number of traumatic events (other than sexual abuse) and pathological dissociation, a total dissociative score on the Child Dissociative Checklist, the Internalizing T score of the CBCL, the Externalizing T score of the CBCL, Total T for the CBCL, and the total of parent reported PTSD symptoms for the child on the DICA-R.  However, there was no significant correlation with child–reported symptoms of PTSD.  These findings support the negative impact of additional traumas on sexually abused children and the importance of assessing a wide variety of traumatic events in addition to sexual abuse when working with a diverse population of abused children.