Sexual abuse and associations with psychosocial aspects of health. A population-based study with Swedish adolescents.
BACKGROUND
Few population-based Nordic studies with adolescents investigate the associations between sexual abuse (SA) and psychosocial health.


OBJECTIVE
Associations between adolescents' self-reported experiences of SA different severity and aspects of psychosocial health such as emotional and behavioral problems, sense of coherence and self-esteem were investigated.


METHODS
A school-based study with 1107 Swedish high school seniors was conducted. The students completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC), I think I am and a self-report survey that included questions about SA, socio-demographic variables and family variables.


RESULTS
SA was related to more emotional and behavioral problems, weaker SOC and lower self-esteem when compared with non-abuse. There was also a dose-response effect insofar as more severe abuse was related to poorer psychosocial health. When adjusted for socio-demographic and family-related variables, the associations between penetrating SA and most of the health variables weakened or disappeared. SOC was associated with penetrating SA even after adjustment.


CONCLUSIONS
This population-based study suggests that SA should not be regarded as an isolated factor in relation to psychosocial health as the associations at a group level may be smaller than expected. Among a number of covariates, family variables such as parental bonding showed to be especially important. Sense of Coherence may be of special interest in further research and clinical treatment.
Priebe
Gisela
G
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, IKVL, Lund University, Sweden. Gisela.Priebe@med.lu.se
Hansson
Kjell
K
Svedin
Carl Göran
CG
D000293:Adolescent; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D011584:Psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology