Predicting symptomatology and self-blame among child sex abuse victims

Fifty-six sexually-abused girls and their nonoffending female caretakers from primarily low-income. African American families were comprehensively assessed in order to determine factors related to child symptomatology and self-blame. Girls whose overall relationships with their caretakers were somewhat negative exhibited more behavioral difficulties. Girls with disruptions in their relationship with a primary caretaker and who felt powerless as a result of the abuse were rated as functioning less well overall by clinicians. Child age, general attributional style, and caretaker blame of the child were related to child self-blame. Clinical implications of these findings include identification of clients at high risk for negative sequelae and development of interventions targeted at specific clinical issues.