We examined the prevalence of childhood (≤ 18 years) physical and sexual abuse reported among patients admitted to the psychiatric inpatient service and the differential rates of this abuse associated with psychiatric diagnoses. This study consisted of a retrospective chart review of 603 patients admitted to a psychiatric ward during a period of 1 year at Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center...

Childhood abuse and neglect are pervasive problems among girls and young women that have numerous health consequences. Research suggests that sexual minority women are more likely than heterosexual women to report childhood abuse and neglect, but little is known about which sexual minority women are at greatest risk for these early adverse experiences. Using data from a pooled sample of women i...

Becker reviews research on child sexual abuse perpetrators, highlighting the role of deviant sexual interests and behaviors in perpetration. Becker discusses characteristics of child sexual abuse perpetrators, problems in determining recidivism rates, and the efficacy of sexual offender treatment measures. CSA perpetrators are a diverse group in terms of both background and perpetration acts, b...

Multiple obstacles can hinder the medical evaluation of suspected child sexual abuse in pediatric primary care. The need for diagnostic accuracy is high. Knowledge of sexual abuse risk factors, an understanding of the victimization process, and awareness of the varied clinical presentations of sexual abuse can be of assistance. Open-ended questioning of the suspected victim is the most critical...

The associations between giving a history of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in children and a range of mental health, interpersonal, and sexual problems in adult life were examined in a community sample of women. Abuse was defined to establish groups giving histories of unequivocal victimization. A history of any form of abuse was associated with increased rates of psychopathology, sexua...

Recent Indigenist scholarship has situated high rates of traumatic life experiences, including sexual abuse, among Indigenous peoples of North America within the larger context of their status as colonized peoples. Sexual abuse has been linked to many negative health outcomes including mental, sexual and drug-related vulnerabilities. There is a paucity of research in Canada addressing the relat...

Research has accumulated over the past several years demonstrating a relationship between childhood abuse and anxiety disorders. Extant studies have generally suffered from a number of methodological limitations, including low sample sizes and without controlling for psychiatric comorbidity and parental anxiety. In addition, research has neglected to examine whether the relationships between an...

Using scales specifically developed for this purpose, the present study examined university women's retrospective reports of childhood sexual, physical, and psychological abuse as they related to three types of current psychosocial dysfunction. Multivariate analysis revealed that, as hypothesized, history of psychological abuse was uniquely associated with low self-esteem, physical abuse was li...

Fourteen children from seven families are reported for whom false allegations of abuse were made by the mother. Twelve children were alleged to have incurred sexual abuse, one both sexual and physical abuse, and one physical abuse alone. Thirteen of the children had incurred, or were currently victims of, factitious illness abuse invented by the mother. The one child with no history of factitio...