Child Sex ual Abuse Psychosocial Impact, Coping Mechanisms and Implicat ions for Social Work Practice at Bale-Goba Hospital, South-eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

This study investigates the psychosocial impact, coping mechanism, the way of discloser of sexually abused children and its implication for social work intervention. The sample consists of 29 sexually abused children, six of non-offending parents and th eir counselors. The participants were recruited from Goba hospital through purposive sampling technique of the non-probability sampling method. The characteristics and the psychosocial effect of child sexual abuse were assessed with the standard q uestionnaires of post trauma distress scale, anxiety scale , and emotional distress scale. Depth interview were conducted with victim children and t heir parents in order to assess the psychological and social impact of the abuse, coping mechanism, how vic tims disclose the problem and the impact of the intervention service. In addition, focused group discu ssion and observation used to supplement the data obtained through aforementioned methods. The data c ollected by questionnaires and rating scale analyzed quantitatively by compiling in tables summar y of frequency and percentage. The qualitative data analyzed using thematic and content analysis te chniques to triangulate with quantitative data. The result of the study indict that the major psychosocial problems sexually abuse children face are post stress disorder, depression, emotional distress, anxiety, so cial withdraw, antisocial behavior etc. the extent of the problem differ from children to child ren based on age of the child, relationship with perpetrator, duration of the abuse, nature of abuse a nd the nature of help victim get from his parents and community. Despite difference on the extent of i ts psychosocial impact all sexually abused children use their own coping mechanism like seeking solution, self-improvement action, keeping busy and avoidance in order to cope up the problem. generall y , this research funding conclude that child sexu al abuse result short and long term psychosocial problem which affect social functioning of the children. Thus, social workers should have to have compressive kno wledge about psychosocial impact of child sexual abuse for effective social work interventions.