Child Sexual Abuse : Prevalence and Impact on Mental Health

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore personal experiences of child sexual abuse in both male and female adolescents, while exploring the impact on the mental health of the victims. The aims of this study are; to discover whether incidences of child sexual abuse are experiences equally by males and females, to ascertain the gender of the abuser and lastly learn about the impacts of abuse of the mental health of the victim. The method which has been used to carry out this research is analysis of archival data which was provided by the key informant, who is a part of an organization by the name of Sahil. After analyzing data the main themes which were identified include; abuser is most often a male, low socio-economic status as a risk factor, 50% of the victims reported the abuse to the police, out of fifteen cases; seven were male victims while eight were female and lastly the mental health outcomes show that six out of the fifteen victims indicated symptoms of depression. In order to lessen these issues, it is necessary to spread awareness amongst low income families and communities, furthermore it is recommended that there is a need for prevention through school based programs.