Aim: To assess the perpetrators of sexual abuse in childhood, forms of simultaneous abuse, and characteristics of the families of origin, and the possible effects of abuse on health in adult life.
Methods: A cross sectional study conducted between 1998 and 2002 included a random group of 936 inpatients (723 women) aged (mean+/-standard deviation) 41.0+/-2.5 years at the psychosomatic clinic in Simbach, Germany. The following questionnaires, previously validated in German, were used to assess the patients: Questionnaire for Life Story and Partnership, Scale for Survey of Quality of Life, Existential Orientation Scale, Leipzig Incidence and Psychological Stress Questionnaire, Questionnaire for Assessment of One's Own Body, Survey of Life Satisfaction, Frankfurt Physical Concept Scale, Giessen Complaint Survey, and the Survey for Collection of Health Behavior Data. We compared the inpatients who had been sexually abused in their childhood (n=250) with other psychiatric inpatients in the control group (n=486).
Results: Out of 250 sexually abused patients, 25.7% were victimized by fathers/stepfathers, 4% by mothers/stepmothers, 12.4% by aunts or uncles, 10% by brothers or sisters, 7.6% by grandmothers/grandfathers, 30.1% by family acquaintances, and 29.3% by strangers. Unlike the parents of patients in the control group, the parents of sexually abused patients had more conflicts, especially over alcohol consumption (p<0.001) and extramarital affairs (p<0.001), they divorced more frequently during the first seven years of the patient's life (p<0.001), and had more underlying emotional (p<0.001) and physical illnesses (p=0.006). Significantly more sexually abused patients reported having poor concentration (odds ratio [OR]=5.03; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.98-9.70; p<0.001) and sexual handicaps (OR=5.16; 95% CI=1.81-11.39; p<0.001), tended to hide their body (OR=3.65; 95% CI=1.69-7.30; p<0.001), abused illicit drugs (OR=2.38; 95% CI=1.08-6.01; p<0.001), had borderline personality disorder (OR=4.21; 95% CI=2.44-8.40; p<0.001), and suicidal ideation (OR=2.87; 95% CI=1.71-5.96; p<0.001).
Conclusion: The patients who were sexually abused in childhood had significantly less satisfactory lives and more frequent psychiatric illnesses, suicidal ideation, disturbed social functioning and perception of the body, and psychosomatic diseases.