| Abstract: | This study investigates the psychosocial impact, coping
mechanism, the way of discloser of sexually
abused children and its implication for social work
intervention. The
sample consists of 29 sexually
abused children, six of non-offending parents and th
eir counselors. The participants were recruited from
Goba hospital through purposive sampling technique of
the non-probability sampling method. The
characteristics and the psychosocial effect of child
sexual abuse were assessed with the standard
q
uestionnaires of post trauma distress scale, anxiety scale
, and emotional distress scale. Depth
interview were conducted with victim children and t
heir parents in order to assess the psychological and
social impact of the abuse, coping mechanism, how vic
tims disclose the problem and the impact of the
intervention service. In addition, focused group discu
ssion and observation used to supplement the data
obtained through aforementioned methods. The data c
ollected by questionnaires and rating scale
analyzed quantitatively by compiling in tables summar
y of frequency and percentage. The qualitative
data analyzed using thematic and content analysis te
chniques to triangulate with quantitative data. The
result of the study indict that the major psychosocial
problems sexually abuse children face are post
stress disorder, depression, emotional distress, anxiety, so
cial withdraw, antisocial behavior etc. the
extent of the problem differ from children to child
ren based on age of the child, relationship with
perpetrator, duration of the abuse, nature of abuse a
nd the nature of help victim get from his parents
and community. Despite difference on the extent of i
ts psychosocial impact all sexually abused children
use their own coping mechanism like seeking solution,
self-improvement action, keeping busy and
avoidance in order to cope up the problem. generall
y , this research funding conclude that child sexu
al
abuse result short and long term psychosocial problem
which affect social functioning of the children.
Thus, social workers should have to have compressive kno
wledge about psychosocial impact of child
sexual abuse for effective social work interventions. |
