Impact of Abuse

The impact of sexual abuse reaches all levels of a childs

emotions. These emotions and the effects are listed below:

Confusion:

This is usually the initial reaction of the child. They will

usually question, "What is going on?" and " Is this right or

wrong?". For a young child these types of questions can be an

emense burden on their physcological development. Once the abuse

begins the victim experience a tremnedous conflict with their

emotions. They feel pleasant due to the attention they are

recieving from the parent, as well as the sensual pleasure. On

the other hand they experience pain, guilt, and anger for what is

being done.

The question, "Is this right or wrong?" posses the greatest

conflict within the childs mind. The abuse feels so wrong yet

the abuser insits it is okay, taking advantage of the childs

mistrust and naivety. Below are the thoughts of an abused victim

as she thinks back to her abuse and questions her father. It is

an example of this mistrust as well as the confusion which goes

through a childs mind.

Since I was a little ten-year-old child, I had to deceive and

hide from the world and my mother that my father took a sexual

interest in me. Remember how you taught me that art of deceit?

First you put me in a situation that had to be kept a secret then

you pledged me to secrecy...As a ten-year-old child, what was I

supposed to do? You are an intelligent man you figure out the

options available to a ten-year-old in that position." (Rush,

1980)

Guilt:

The abused will feel tremendous guilt for a numerous reasons:

They feel they did nothing to stop the abuse therefore they are

responsible and it should continue. They felt uncomfortable but

the abuse was sometimes pleasureable. They somehow deserved

and/or caused the abuse. A victim will usually feel this way

when their self-esteem has diminshed and they have no more

answers for what is happenning.

A nine-year-old girl had a nightmare and went to her father's

room for comfort but instead he sexually abused her. The girl

then concluded that she caused the abuse by going to his room.

The abuse thereafter continued and she now felt she deserved for

it to continue." (Landau, 1990) This fictional example helps to

further illustrate the final2 points which were presented above.

The guilt hits the child sohard that they are unable to clearly

see reality.

Another major source of guilt comes from the mother. Oftenwhen

the mother is told about the abuse she will not want tobelieve

the accusations and will blame the child. Other reasonsfor why

the mother may pass guilt: 1) she may feel inequipped tochallange

the husbands domination in any area of life thereforeshe shes

passes the husbands faults and looks at the child. 2) The mother

doesn't want to lose her husband. She does not wantto give up

the security provided by her husband and will blockout the abuse.