Familial risk factors associated with intrafamilial and extrafamilial sexual abuse of three to five year old girls.

Abstract

This study intended to identify familial risk factors which differentiate sexually abused young girls from nonabused girls and, further, young victims of intrafamilial from those of extrafamilial sexual abuse. The subjects were 112 girls aged three to five years and their families. Forty-two were the victims of intrafamilial sexual abuse and 28 were victims of extrafamilial sexual abuse while 42 girls were not the victims of abuse. The three groups of girls were matched for age. Comparisons indicated that the families of abused girls had less harmony and stability in the marital unit and were headed by less competent parents. Mothers in both abuse groups were significantly more likely to have experienced sexual abuse as children. For all comparisons, the intrafamilial group showed greater disadvantage and dysfunction than the extrafamilial group. The intrafamilial group was differentiated from the extrafamilial group by worse spousal relationships, inadequate boundaries in parent-child behaviour, father's history of physical abuse as a child and violent behaviour as an adult and maternal disapproval of the child victim. These findings suggest that child sexual abuse is related to a longstanding collection of interconnected adult personal and relational deficiencies which result in inadequate parenting for the young victim.