Psychological distress, problem behaviors, and family functioning of sexually abused adolescent inpatients.

OBJECTIVE

By studying children and adolescents who have been sexually abused, improvements in identifying and treating emerging pathology can be gleaned before personality structures become more rigidly defined and less amenable to therapeutic interventions. It is through studying and comparing subgroups of victims and controls that clinical researchers can additionally elucidate abuse-related manifestations that contribute to the development of psychopathology.

METHOD

A group of sexually abused adolescent psychiatric inpatients was compared with a control group of inpatient counterparts on measures of social competence, self-esteem, depression, substance abuse, and perceptions of family characteristics and functioning. Consecutive admissions to an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit (N = 423) were carefully screened for a history of sexual abuse, then divided into two groups, each with 87 subjects, after matching on key variables including age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and psychiatric diagnosis.

RESULTS

Sexually abused and control group inpatient adolescents were similar on standardized measures of psychological distress and family functioning. Statistically significant differences were found between groups on substance abuse measures.

CONCLUSION

The phenomenology of the relationship between sexual abuse and substance abuse and the implications for inpatient treatment are summarized.