Post-traumatic stress and well-being in victims of chilhood sexual abuse
Rebeca Fernández González, María Lameiras Fernández, José María Failde Garrido

SUMMARY

Objetive: The aim of this study is to describe the prevalencia and characteristics of the childhood sexual abuse and to analyze his repercussion on the posttraumatic stress and the vital well-being.

Design: Analytical-descriptive transversal study. Emplacement: Galizian community. Participants: The sample was constituted by 364 university students 66,5% women and 33,5% males, with an average of age of 21,54 years.

Main measurements: The scales are: Sociodemographics scale and prevalencia of the childhood sexual abuse (depedent variables), and Posttraumatic Stress, Rosenberg’s Autoesteem, Life Orientation Test and the Scale of Satisfaction with the Life (independent variables).

Results: 8% affirms to have suffered sexual abuses in the infancy. Being the profile of the victim that of a woman (79,5%) with ages understood between 10-15 years. The subjects with history of the childhood sexual abuse presented major levels of posttraumatic stress (T = -4,93, P < 0,05), as well as higher punctuations in the scales of reexperimentation (T = -3,87, P < 0,05), avoidance (T = -5.75, P < 0,05) and hyperactivation (T = -4,64, P < 0,05), that correspond respectively with the criteria B, C and D of the DSM-IV for the diagnosis of the Stress Posttraumatic Disorder. Likewise, they presented lower levels of autoesteem (T = 2,10, P < 0,05) and of the satisfaction with life (T = 2,33, P < 0,05).

Conclusions: The characteristics of the sample it explains the relatively low levels of prevalencia of abuses, as well as the minor gravity of the same ones. The results of this research have implications with a view to the design and implementation of programs of treatment for the victims of sexual abuses.

KEY WORDS

Post-traumatic stress, crime victims, prevalence, students, sexual abuse, childhood.