Profıle Of Sexually Abused Gırls

Abstract

Objective: Child sexual abuse exerts more traumatic and long-term effects on children than other types of abuse. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the profile of sexually exploited female children. Methods: Research is descriptive and retrospective in nature. The population of the study consisted of female children aged 9-17 years hospitalized in Female Children's Mental Health Services of Manisa Mental Health and Disease Hospital. In the survey access to entire population was targeted instead of sample selection. The study sample consisted of 85 children. Hospital records and judicial reports of cases were examined by researchers retrospectively. Numbers, and percentage test were used in statistical analysis. Results: 42.5% of sexually abused children aged between 13-15 years. The most frequently reported sexual abuse type was vaginal penetration (69.4%), sexual touching (62.4%) in girls, and 25.9% of the victims were perpetrated many times. All of abusers were male, 54.1% of them were acquitances, and 14.1% of them were a relative. While 25.9% of them were abused by more than one abuser. Still 91.8% of them experienced emotional abuse in addition to sexual abuse. At least one mental disorder was diagnosed in 83.5% of the cases following the abuse including severe stress disorder (37.6%), depression (27.1%), behavioral disorders (22.4%) and, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (12.9%) in respective percentages of patients. Conclusion: These results suggest that sexual abuse is a significant life stressor for sexually abused girls and it was concluded that it should be beneficial to follow up girls who experienced sexual abuse as for psychiatric symptoms.