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The impact of sexual abuse on body experience in adults with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual
Manon J Smit1,2, Claudia Emck2, Mia Scheffers1
1School of Health, Movement & Education, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, the Netherlands.
Background:
Research is lacking on body-related consequences of sexual abuse in adults with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF), although the prevalence of abuse is high and body- and movement-oriented diagnostics and therapeutics seem warranted for this group.
Method:
Body experience in adults with MID-BIF who were sexually abused (SA) and were not sexually abused (NSA) was compared using a self-report instrument, the Body Experience Questionnaire-mb, and an instrument to observe non-verbal psychomotor behaviour, the PsyMot-mb.
Results:
The SA group showed significantly higher self-reported body awareness and more observed problems with body acceptance than the NSA group. No significant group differences were found for self-reported body satisfaction and body attitude.
Conclusions:
Adults with MID-BIF who were sexually abused are more aware of their body signals, but less able to adequately attend to, tolerate, and interpret these signals. Therefore, body- and movement-oriented therapies hold promise for this group.
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