[Questionnaire on psychosexual development of children--development of a guideline for diagnosis of sexual abuse].

The purpose of this paper is to present a questionnaire which can collate data on the psychosexual development of children. There are as yet few contributions from the field of empirical research dealing with the question of "normal" psychosexual development patterns. There is also a lack of standardised procedures by which this aspect of child development can be assessed. For this reason we have developed a questionnaire relating to the theme of child sexuality which can be used in the framework of history and which was examined as part of a clinical study supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The questionnaire contents questions put to parents relating to the sexual development of children, on how sexuality is talked about and dealt with in the family, and on precisely-defined and described experiences of the child and other members of the family. At the time we present a method of judging normative sexual development of the child and of disturbances such a sexual abuse. In order to deal with this question the collation of information from four different areas is required: physical development and symptoms, behaviour of the child, family context including psychosocial adversities and parent-child interaction. Case studies will illustrate how data from the four areas are related and can accordingly be assessed in order to be able to make judgments on the psychosexual development of children. We see this method as helpful in order to determine whether or not a child was sexual abused. Thus, consideration of each individual case in context is necessary if a balanced judgment is to be arrived at.