Addressing the Lifelong Impact of Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract

Why Child Sexual Abuse is a Problem Child sexual abuse proves a significant health problem encountered by many children worldwide, as argued by Bustamante et al. (2019) and Walsh et al. (2019). Child sexual abuse has lifetime implications on the child’s well-being which makes it a controversial issue that stirs hot debates worldwide. It is an abuse that leaves the victim with physical, mental, and psychological problems though preventable, by considering the suitable measures that define it as an issue of relevance to analyze and elaborate. Child sexual abuse statistics indicate that 1 out of 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys experience child sexual abuse in their life (Bustamante et al., 2019). Unfortunately, over 90% of child sexual abuse becomes perpetrated by a person well known to the child or the family, which defines this abuse's evilness. America is among the nations where child sexual abuse is defined as underreported though it amounts to $billions of economic burden, impacting this nation’s economic development adversely. Among the significant physical health implications of child sexual abuse on the child's life are STDs and STIs, early and unwanted pregnancies. Other physical health effects include physical injuries, chronic health conditions such as heart diseases, obesity and cancer later in life, while severe cases lead to death. Depression and posttraumatic stress disorder serve as the significant mental health effects of CSA on victims. Substance use like opioids, risky sexual behaviors like sex with multiple partners and unprotected sex, and increases risk of suicide or suicide attempts prove potential behavioral consequences of CSA. Esteem issues, negative attitude and fears towards the opposite gender, increased risk of sexual victimization in adulthood, and non-sexual intimate partner violence is among the psychological torture that CSA exposes to children in their lifetime. Besides CSA causing adverse effects on child victims, families also endure stress associated with the same abuse. For instance, families experience financial strain trying to support the victim to overcome their experience through counseling and medical attention. Families also encounter shame which hinders transparency in discussing the abuse experience inhibiting the recovery of the victim. The parent's relationship with the abused child is always at risk as children tend to see their parents from an angle of the gender that sexually abused them, which also derails the recovery process. Parents also experience mental health problems like depression, stress among other psychologically related traumas, upon discoveries of their child’s CSA cases. Child sexual abuse, therefore, remains a significant problem whose relevance to debate and formulate lifetime remedies cannot be ignored. Summaries of the Prevention/Intervention programs “I have the right to feel safe: Evaluation of a school-based child sexual abuse prevention program in Ecuador” is a Child sexual program developed for children by Bustamante et al. (2019). These authors argue that an effective prevention program aims at providing children with strategies to protect themselves against child sexual abuse from the perpetrators. For this reason, the named prevention program aimed at analyzing children's knowledge of CSA self-protection strategies in Ecuador. The researchers evaluated in three phases where the sample participants (children aged 7-12 years) were required to fill in questionnaires that defined their knowledge on CSA self-protection strategies. The first group (k=4) received intervention between October and December 2016, while the second group (K=2) received intervention between March and April 2017. The three phases of assessing their knowledge commenced before the intervention, immediately after the first group received the intervention and after completing the second group intervention process. The result indicated that children had CSA knowledge which increased significantly after receiving the intervention. Group one maintained a higher CSA knowledge score six months after the intervention ended, which defines the CSA intervention program's relevance to equip them with basic strategies to enhance their safety from sexual abuse perpetrators. “Sexual Abuse Prevention Education in Australia Primary Schools: A National Survey of Programs” is a research conducted by Walsh et al. (2019) to evaluate the nature and availability of CSA prevention programs delivered in Australian primary schools. The study targeted prevention program providers (coordinators and facilitators) to understand the elements of the prevention they provide to the Australian children and the availability and effectiveness of the program on the said population. Based on Walsh et al., (2019) study, it is evident that the CSA prevention education program is within the Australian primary school curriculum. Still, the extent to which these prevention programs are delivered remains largely unknown, which lead to these researcher to conduct this research to offer insights on the same “Making prevention matter” served as the title of the research where responses from CSA prevention program facilitators from August 2011 to May 2012 gave a clear insight into the nature, availability, and effectiveness of Australia's programs. To enhance the prevention program facilitator's transparency concerning the topic of study, the researcher formulated a survey instrument design in three stages. The first stage comprised of a thorough examination of guidelines for comprehensive and transparent reporting of intervention. The second stage involved the extraction of items related to program content, teaching strategies and resources commonly found in CSA school-based education programs. The third step involved consideration of research reviews identifying components of effective behavioral change intervention. In all three stages, the CSA prevention program coordinators filled in questionnaires that responded to the topic's basics. The findings on the CSA prevention program's availability indicated that each program reached 18000 children though based on the demanding population of children aged 4-13 years; each program ought to get approximately 80000 children. The program findings' effectiveness indicated that most of the prevention programs delivered in Australian schools consisted of content that defines effective programs. However, the need to enhance their availability is the key to meeting the rising target population's demands. Summarize, Compare and Contrast the two programs Both programs address the same issue of child sexual abuse prevention programs to offer their target audience a proper understanding of the nature, availability, effectiveness, and relevance of such programs concerning children's CSA knowledge. Both programs aim to offer clear insight into the extent of knowledge children have on child sexual abuse topics and the strategic prevention measure that enhances their safety from sexual abuse perpetrators. Both programs address CSA knowledge's relevance for the children whose age is below 14 years as they serve as the main population in most primary schools and most vulnerable to abuse. Though the two programs are from different countries, America and Australia, both focus on evaluating primary school-based child sexual abuse prevention programs to offer their target audience enough information on their children's safety with regard t the abuse. For this reason, the programs aim at enhancing sexual abuse knowledge to the children population to ensure that they remain in a safe environment in the course of their learning and life after that. In both programs, the female gender becomes defined as at a higher risk of enduring this sexual abuse, which establishes the relevance of effective prevention programs to enhance safety for girl child from such violations. It is also clear that both programs define CSA as a preventable abuse with the implementation of the proper prevention knowledge to the target population as early as possible. The main difference between the two programs is that the Ecuador program is developed for the children while the Australian program is designed for CSA prevention program facilitators/coordinators. According to...