Trauma In Adolescence

While many adolescence have disabilities that effect their way of life, the least spoken about disability is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder especially when pertaining to child sexual abuse. The article “Trauma Characteristics and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Adolescent Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse” reveals the contexts of PTSD along with a randomized controlled case study of 83 female adolescents who undergone such abuse. This study was conducted by doctoral-level clinicians using various measures including but not limited to: Child PTSD Symptom Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Personal Experience Screening Questionnaire, and Trauma History Interview. In addition, a data analytic approach was used to subdivide each adolescent’s trauma by type, number of victimizations, as well as the relationship to the perpetrator.

Each adolescent’s trauma is then categorized as either rape in which occurred once, sexual assault in which the victimization happened once but without penetration as in rape, and sexual abuse in which rape or sexual assault occurred repeatedly.

After six years of studying the 83 thirteen to eighteen year olds, the results were conducted in comparing the adolescents’ traumatic experiences with the outcomes of PTSD such as re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance symptoms, and hyper-arousal. Although each of these adolescents were previously diagnosed with PTSD, this study was able to statistically organize the intensity of their symptoms with the risk of

suicidality. In short, the findings of this study shows that suicidality and the severity of PTSD symptoms increases when the victimizations are repeated as well as if the perpetrator is a family member. The study also shows that the duration of PTSD symptoms is not linked to the type of sexual abuse but is linked to the child’s relationship to the perpetrator. Among these adolescents, about twenty five percent were victimized more than once and subsequently have greater suicidal ideations.