Profiling the Psychosocial Impacts of Child Sexual Abuse in Ethiopia

Abstract

Objective: This study sought to study the psychosocial effects of child sexual abuse (CSA) and to provide some insight about appropriate interventions. Method: Data was collected from 318 female children who were sexually abused through early marriage (n = 114), rape (n = 118), and child prostitution (n = 86). The Amharic version of the Children’s Impact of Traumatic Events Scale-Revised (CITES-R) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) were employed. Results: K-means cluster analysis classified respondents into four distinct and clinically meaningful clusters labelled by further discriminant analysis as acute trauma, chronic trauma, avoidant, and resilient. While more than half (53%) of the respondents belonged to the acute trauma cluster, the remaining 16%, 17%, and 14% to the chronic trauma, avoidant, and resilient clusters, respectively. A discriminant analysis predicted that there was a 96% hit rate of cluster membership. Specific predicted membership rate ranged from 98% in respondents belonging to the acute trauma and resilient clusters to 91% in the avoidant trauma cluster. ANOVA and the associated post hoc tests on personality related validating variables, and a Chi-square test on abuse related and demographic validating variables yielded significant and valid associations with the clusters. Conclusion: Findings of the present study are important in that the four clus