Impact of Abuse - The impact of sexual abuse reaches all levels of a childsemotions. These emotions and the effects are listed below:Confusion: This is usually the initial reaction of the child. They will usuallyquestion, "What is going on?" and " Is this right or wrong?". For a youngchild these types of questions can be an emense burden on theirphyscological development. Once the abuse begins the victim experience atremnedous conflict with their emotions. They feel pleasant due to theattention they are recieving from the parent, as well as the sensualpleasure. On the other hand they experience pain, guilt, and anger forwhat is being done. The question, "Is this right or wrong?" posses the greatest conflictwithin the childs mind. The abuse feels so wrong yet the abuser insits itis okay, taking advantage of the childs mistrust and naivety. Below arethe thoughts of an abused victim as she thinks back to her abuse andquestions her father. It is an example of this mistrust as well as theconfusion which goes through a childs mind. "Since I was a little ten-year-old child, I had to deceive and hidefrom 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 asituation that had to be kept a secret then you pledged me to secrecy...Asa 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 thatposition." (Rush, 1980)Guilt: The abused will feel tremendous guilt for a numerousreasons: - They feel they did nothing to stop the abuse thereforethey 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 willusually feel this way when their self-esteem has diminshed and they have nomore answers for what is happenning. "A nine-year-old girl had a nightmare and went to her fathers room forcomfort but instead he sexually abused her. The girl then concluded thatshe caused the abuse by going to his room. The abuse thereafter continuedand she now felt she deserved for it to continue." (Landau, 1990) This fictional example helps to further illustrate the final 2 pointswhich were presented above. The guilt hits the child so hard that they areunable to clearly see reality. Another major source of guilt comes from the mother. Often when themother is told about the abuse she will not want to believe the accusationsand will blame the child. Other reasons for why the mother may pass guilt:1) she may feel inequipped to challange the husbands domination in any areaof life therefore she shes passes the husbands faults and looks at thechild. 2) The mother doesn't want to lose her husband. She does not wantto give up the security provided by her husband and will block out theabuse.