Attributions of Blame in Child Sexual Abuse Victims

Hunter, John; Goodwin, Dennis W.; Wilson, Richard

doi:10.1300/j070v01n03_06

Cited by 73 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…This study examined how age at abuse discovery was related to abuse-specific attributions at discovery and over time. The limited research on abuse-specific attributions is contradictory with one study showing children having more (Hazzard, Celano, Gould, Lawry, & Webb, 1995) and another less (Hunter et al, 1992) self-blame than adolescents or adults. The theoretical literature suggests competing hypotheses for which age group is likely to make more self-blame attributions for the abuse.…”

Section: Age and Abuse-specific Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Most studies of general attributional style in children and adolescents find no gender differences (Gotlib, Lewinsohn, Seeley, Rohde, & Redner, 1993;Quiggle, Garber, Panak, & Dodge, 1992;Mezulis, Hyde, & Abramson, 2006), although one study reported adolescent women were more likely to make internal attributions for negative events (Gladstone, Kaslow, Seeley, & Lewinsohn, 1997). Similarly, studies on abuse-specific attributions find no gender differences in levels of self-and perpetrator-blame (Hunter et al, 1992;McGee et al, 2001). Despite this paucity of empirical support, gender differences in abuse-specific attributions were explored because so few studies have done so, none has considered changes in abuse-specific attributions as a function of gender, and conceptually self-blame attributions have been viewed as particularly important for women's adaptation to CSA (Cutler & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991).…”

Section: Gender and Abuse-specific Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…No relation was found between self-ratings of severity and self-or perpetratorblame in adolescent victims of CSA, although this may have been due to consistently high severity ratings across all CSA participants (McGee et al, 2001). A study that included children, adolescent and adults found that reports of the use of force during the abuse were related to perpetrator-but not self-blame for CSA (Hunter et al, 1992).…”

Section: Abuse Severity and Abuse-specific Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Youth spontaneously make both self and perpetrator attributions about sexual abuse (Dalenberg & Jacobs, 1994;Feiring, Taska & Chen, 2002;Hunter, Goodwin, & Wilson, 1992;McGee, Wolfe, & Olson, 2001). Typically victims attribute more blame to the perpetrator than the self (Feiring et al, 2002;McGee et al, 2001;Spaccarelli, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typically victims attribute more blame to the perpetrator than the self (Feiring et al, 2002;McGee et al, 2001;Spaccarelli, 1995). Most of the knowledge about abuse-specific attributions comes from children assessed within six months of the time the CSA is reported to child protective services (referred to here as abuse discovery) or from adults seen long after the abuse has occurred (e.g., Coffey, Leitenberg, Henning, Turner, & Bennet, 1996;Hunter et al, 1992;McGee et al, 2001). Little is known about how abuse-specific attributions around the time of abuse discovery are related to changes in attributions in the short-and long-term.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Childhood sexual abuse and abuse-specific attributions of blame over 6 years following discovery

Feiring

Cleland

2007

Child Abuse & Neglect

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Objective-The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of change in attributions for childhood sexual abuse (CSA) over a 6-year period and whether such patterns were related to abuse severity, age, gender, and subsequent symptoms of depression and PTSD.Methodology-One-hundred and sixty children, 8-15 years old, were interviewed within 8 weeks of the time the CSA was reported to child protective services (i.e., the time of abuse discovery). Follow-up interviews were conducted 1-year later on 147, and 6 years later on 121 of the original participants. Abuse-specific attributions were obtained using two methods. Participants first responded to an open-ended interview question about why they believed the CSA had happened to them and then completed a rating scale about the extent to which possible attributions for the CSA applied to them (e.g., "Because I was not smart enough").Results-Over time, perpetrator-blame attributions were consistently more common than selfblame attributions for CSA (using both interview and rating measures). Youth were more likely to report self-blame attributions on the rating measure than the open-ended interview question. The interview method indicated that youth often felt confused about why the abuse happened up to a year following discovery but this response diminished by the third assessment. On average, ratings of perpetrator-blame attribution remained high over time (p<.05), whereas ratings of self-blame decreased (p<.01). Penetration was related to more self-blame (p<.05) and less perpetrator-blame (p<.05), and the use of force was related to more perpetrator-blame. The initial level of self-blame attribution ratings predicted subsequent symptoms of depression (p<.05) and intrusive experiences (p<.05) after controlling for age at abuse discovery, gender, and self-blame attributions for common events. Perpetrator-blame attributions were not related to symptoms.Conclusions-The findings of this study suggest that assessing responses to open-ended interview questions about the perceived reasons for the abuse and ratings of attributions are important for understanding how youth make sense of their abuse. Abuse-specific self-blame attributions at abuse discovery have a persistent effect on internalizing symptoms and should be assessed and the target of treatment as soon as possible after CSA has been reported to the authorities.

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Section: Age and Abuse-specific Attributionsmentioning

confidence: 90%