Psychosocial Impact of Child Sexual Abuse on Needs and Extent of Conflict Among Family Members Undergoing Legal Processes

Abstract

Child sexual abuse is very prevalent and especially in a country where it often goes unreported. In the part of the population that does report it and proceed legally there are many complications that lead to psychological distress. The sample size chosen for the study was 80 participants and they were assessed on parental emotional reactions, needs and strengths and extent of conflict. The analysis was done using correlation, T test and One way Anova. The difference in means between the psychological variables and demographic factors such as years of legal proceedings and birth order were assessed. Results showed a significant relationship between Psychosocial impact – Parental Emotional reactions and conflict behaviours. There was also a high level of negative reactions among those families where there was abuse among siblings of second birth order, and higher level of perceived unmet needs among families where the legal proceedings were taking place for 2-3 years. The study implications are that it can be used for creating an evidence based therapeutic model.