Department of Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.
Sex Abuse. 2023 Jun;35(4):488-502. doi: 10.1177/10790632221128313. Epub 2022 Sep 18.
Studies examining the etiology of problematic sexual behavior (PSB) among pre-teen children often rely on identifying correlational relationships without examining potential causal mechanisms. This study describes an exploratory analysis of a potential mediational model where child sexual abuse (CSA) and child physical abuse (CPA) predict the onset of PSB through their impact on the emergence of posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and self-dysregulation. The caregivers of 189 children between the ages of 3 and 11 years presenting for mental health treatment in the United States completed a battery of measures designed to assess each of the variables in the model. Cross-sectional, regression-based mediational analyses showed that the overall model performed adequately ( = 0.33, = 0.11, = 3.07, = .004). CSA exerted a direct effect on PSB that was not mediated through either PTS or self-dysregulation. However, no direct effect for CPA was found. Rather, CPA exerted a significant effect on the display of self-dysregulation, which in turn was associated with PSB. These results are discussed in light of clinical implications and directions for further research.
研究常通过识别相关性关系来考察未成年前儿童问题性行为（PSB）的病因，而不检查潜在的因果机制。本研究描述了一个潜在中介模型的探索性分析，其中儿童性虐待（CSA）和儿童身体虐待（CPA）通过对创伤后应激（PTS）症状和自我调节出现的影响，来预测 PSB 的发生。美国 189 名 3 至 11 岁接受心理健康治疗的儿童的照顾者完成了一系列旨在评估模型中每个变量的措施。基于横断面、回归的中介分析表明，整体模型表现良好（=0.33，=0.11，=3.07，=0.004）。CSA 对 PSB 有直接影响，而 PTS 或自我调节并未对其产生中介作用。然而，未发现 CPA 的直接影响。相反，CPA 对自我调节的表现有显著影响，而自我调节又与 PSB 相关。这些结果从临床意义和进一步研究的方向进行了讨论。
