Sexual abuse: a comparison between resilient victims and drug-addicted victims

The goal of this study was to determine which variables distinguish resilient victims from drug-addicted victims, who were sexually abused during their childhood--in addition, to measure the contribution of these variables to the level of distress experienced by the victims. There were two groups of 20 women interviewed. The resilient group showed no clinically significant symptoms of mental distress, and the addicted group were undergoing treatment for drug dependency. They all completed a semi-structured interview and a questionnaire regarding the type and severity of their sexual abuse, mental health status, self-esteem, locus of control, support and cognitive factors from Finkelhor's model. Both of these groups were equally and severely abused. Resilient and addicted women both received a moderate level of support. These women also reported the same sense of betrayal and powerlessness. Furthermore, both groups believe, to a large degree, that they now control what happens to them (internal locus of control). There were three distinguishing variables among the two groups, they were stigmatization, self-blame, and hazard for the locus of control. In comparison, resilient women had less self-blame for having been abused and they also felt less stigmatized than addicted women. In fact, stigmatization and self-blame account for 65% of the TSC-40 variance. These results suggest that cognitive strategies, particularly those that are linked to the interpretation of the event, may have some importance in the recovery.