Child Sexual Abuse Essay

Does childhood sexual abuse effect victims as middle-aged adults?
The abuse of children has become a major concern and a main cause of many people’s psychological disorders in today’s society. There are three ways a child can be abused: Physically, emotionally, and sexually. Although all are harmful, researchers believe that sexual abuse is the most devastating of the three (Levesque). Abuse has immediate and long-term effects on a child’s development. The short-term effects of sexual abuse on children have already been proven, but what researchers are attempting to figure out is, do the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse affect young adults? There have been many conflicting ideas when researchers and psychologists talk/argue on the subject of childhood sexual abuse. Sexual abuse has the ability to damage a child emotionally, physically, and the way they behave for all of their childhood; and the effects have been connected to lasting into middle-aged adulthood.
There are a large number of proven negative short-term effects of sexual abuse that affect the way a child functions and grows. The short-term effects of sexual abuse are usually noticeable within 2 years after the abuse has stopped. The effects normally vary due to the severity of the abuse and the child’s developmental stage. The most common short-term effect of sexual abuse is posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD. PTSD is a condition whose symptoms fall into three categories: reenacting a traumatic event, avoidance of cues linked to the event or general withdrawal; and a physiological hyper-reactivity. 50% of sexually abused children meet the symptoms linked with PTSD and a third of all sexually abused children develop full diagnostic criteria. If PTSD is not recognized early, it can become a persistent problem that would follow the child into adulthood. Sexually reactive behavior is another common short-term effect that develops as a result of sexual abuse. Children that have been sexually...