Dawn M Hughes

Characteristics of childhood sexual abuse among female survivors in therapy.

Characteristics of the abuse experience by 135 women entering an outpatient treatment program for survivors of childhood sexual abuse were assessed utilizing a structured clinical interview. Areas assessed included: nature, frequency and duration of the abuse; participants age at onset of abuse; perpetrator characteristics; childhood physical abuse experiences; and circumstances leading to abuse cessation. Participants who had been molested by more than one perpetrator were administered questions about the abuse committed by each perpetrator separately. Abuse by the first individual to molest a participant was found to be more likely to be incestuous, of higher frequency, and more extensive and invasive than that by later perpetrators. Survivors seeking therapy indicated experiencing considerably more severe abuse, at a younger age, for longer duration, and at the hands of more perpetrators than previously reported in the literature on nonclinical samples of survivors.

Degrees of Memory of Childhood Sexual Abuse Among Women Survivors in Therapy

Past and current memory for childhood sexual abuse reported by a clinical sample of 160 women survivors was assessed utilizing a structured clinical interview. Response alternatives for memory were ordered along a continuum. To minimize treatment effects, participants were interviewed as early in therapy as possible. Fairly complete recollection both in the past and currently was reported by 26.3% of the sample, 36.9% apparently lost and subsequently recovered sexual abuse memories, and 36.9% endorsed intermediate degrees of memory. Only 2.5% indicated a decrease in degree of recollection over time. Age at onset was the only abuse characteristic found to differentiate participants with fairly complete memory from the rest of the sample. Findings are interpreted as illustrating that conclusions about memory for abuse are highly dependent on the way inquiries are conceptualized and worded.