Sexual abuse trauma among Chinese survivors.

OBJECTIVE

As an initial effort to examine Chinese sexual abuse trauma in relation to the cultural construction of sexual victimization of women, this study applies Finkelhor and Browne's (1985) traumagenic dynamics model to examine post-abuse trauma among Chinese child and adolescent survivors in Taiwan. In analyzing sexual abuse trauma in the context of Chinese patriarchal familialism and cultural fetish for female chastity, this study attempts to explore cultural constructional process of sexual abuse in Chinese society.

METHOD

This study conducted in-depth interviews with 19 survivors of, and three social workers on, sexual abuse in Taiwan. These interviews were guided by a semi-structured questionnaire on sexual abuse incidents and post-abuse responses/concerns, and had generated a total of 84 pages of written reports, which serve as the text-data for the analysis.

RESULTS

This study identifies sexual stigmatization and senses of disempowerment and betrayal as the most pervasive trauma complex among Chinese sexual abuse survivors in Taiwan. This study found that, in addition to lowering self-esteem, sexual stigmatization results in polarized sexuality among adolescent survivors, as manifested in aversion to and preoccupation with sexuality. The abuse-induced disempowerment is manifested in the survivors' fear for personal safety and heightened sense of vulnerability to re-victimization. The sense of betrayal results in interpersonal difficulties as manifested in self-imposed isolation from others and/or suspicious attitudes toward others, which further impair the survivor's efficacy in meeting her abuse-induced clinging need.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, this study observes similar traumatic symptoms between Chinese survivors and their American counterparts as documented in the literature. Nevertheless, this study observes the sexual stigmatization represents the most prevailing post-abuse trauma among Chinese sexual abuse survivors, and reflects the patriarchal fetish for female chastity in the Chinese cultural construction of sexual victimization.