How Does An Adult Cope With Having Been Abused As A Child?

Not only should we ask

‘How Does An Adult Cope With Having Been Abused As A Child?‘,

We Should Also Ask

‘How Do They Cope With Their Experiences From it?’

ESTIMATES SUGGEST THAT BETWEEN

ONE-FIFTH CHILDREN AND ONE-THIRD OF FEMALES IN THE U.S. EXPERIENCE SOME FORM OF SEXUAL ABUSE DURING CHILDHOOD

(ELLIOTT & BRIERE, 1995; FINKELHOR, 1994; FINKELHOR, HOTALING, LEWIS, & SMITH, 1990).

1 in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused

(https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/child-sexual-abuse/sexual-abuse-facts-statistics/).

1 in 14 children have been physically abused

(https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/physical-abuse/physical-abuse-facts-statistics/).

Which means that they are Around 2.5 million children participate in judicial proceedings across the European Union (EU) every year (http://www.canee.net/).

Many investigations of coping among adult child sexual abuse (CSA) victims utilize qualitative research designs to describe the coping methods most often employed by CSA victims. Typically, these studies use open-ended interviews to assess coping, with later coding of responses into categories based upon the content of the interviews. Such studies vary in nature of the samples used, rationalisation of CSA, and methods of assessing coping mechanisms.

Further, these studies are retrospective in design, involve adult female CSA victims, and use some form of semi-structured interview to assess sexual abuse, as well as the ways in which individuals coped with CSA, either at the time of the abuse or as an adult.

Collectively, these studies indicate that CSA victims use a wide array of coping strategies, including cognitive, e.g.:

• Cognitive reappraisal.

• Re framing.

• Minimisation.

• Memory repression.

• Distraction.

• Behavioural.

• Avoidance.

• Addictive behaviours.

Efforts to deal with their abuse experiences. For example, Brand, Warner, and Alexander (1997) found that adult incest victims recruited via newspaper advertisements used 19 different coping strategies, ranging from

Cognitive avoidance to behavioural sublimation.

In a small sample of 11 adult women participating in counselling, Morrow and Smith (1995)identified two core coping strategies:

1. keeping from being overwhelmed by threatening emotions and

2. managing feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, and lack of control.

Moreover, among 40 adult women recruited from electoral rolls in New Zealand, Perrott, Morris, Martin, and Romans (1998) proposed six main coping styles e.g.:

• Deliberately suppressing.

• Re-framing.

• Working through the abuse.

• Seeking support.

• Talking about the abuse as adults.

• coping on their own.

Similarly, among 10 self-identified resilient adult women who had experienced child sexual abuse,

• Positive coping strategies.

• Refocusing and moving on.

• Active healing.

• Achieving closure.

These coping mechanisms were identified as processes that enabled women to effectively manage their negative emotions (Bogar & Hulse-Killacky, 2006). Attempting to illuminate adaptive coping strategies,Himelein and McElrath (1996) examined females in their first year of college and found that four coping strategies emerged in resilient CSA victims: disclosure, minimisation, positively re-framing the abuse, and refusing to dwell on the past.

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