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The Role of Shame and Attributional Style in Children's and Adolescents' Adaptation to Sexual Abuse

Institute for the Study of Child Development Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; New Brunswick, NJ

Lynn Taska

Institute for the Study of Child Development Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; New Brunswick, NJ

Michael Lewis

Institute for the Study of Child Development Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; New Brunswick, NJ

This study examined the role of shame and a self-blaming attributional style as factors that can help explain the level of psychological distress in child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse. A total of 142 participants (82 children, 60 adolescents) were seen within 8 weeks of discovery of the abuse. Regression analyses were used to examine how age at discovery, gender, abuse characteristics, shame, and attribution were related to depression, self-esteem, and traumatic events sequelae. As expected, shame and self-blaming attributions were strongly related to depression, self-esteem, and traumatic events sequelae and accounted for significant variance even after age, gender, and abuse characteristics had been controlled. The relations between number of abusive events and depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and eroticism were mediated by shame and attributional style.

Child Maltreatment, Vol. 3, No. 2, 129-142 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/1077559598003002007


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