1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This analysis examined the contribution of personal, family (maternal and paternal support; sibling support) and extra-familiar (peer support; other adults) resilience to the prediction of clinical levels of PTSD symptoms in adolescents reporting sexual abuse.» (p. 685)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Data for this study are drawn from the Quebec Youths’ Romantic Relationships survey. Data were collected among youths enrolled in secondary 3 to 5 through a one-stage stratified cluster sampling of 34 Quebec high schools.» (p. 687)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«Results of the present study confirmed that unfortunately a significant proportion of youth have experienced child sexual abuse with girls more likely than boys to report sexual trauma. Our prevalence rates of 15% in girls and 4% of boys are quite high given that teenagers were questioned and also that our inquiry specifically focused on sexual abuse and not on sexual coercion perpetrated by a dating partner. Our data further indicates that an important number of teenagers who are victims of sexual abuse display PTSD symptoms (25.5%). Thus the rate of symptoms reaching a clinical threshold for sexually abused teenagers clearly exceeds the prevalence rates found in normative samples. […] Over and above socio-demographic variables, characteristics of the abuse experience and resilience features, our data confirms prior results attesting that perceived maternal support is associated with PTSD. Thus, teenagers describing their maternal figure as not available during the last 12 months preceding the survey in times of need and/or of not providing sufficient care are more likely to achieve clinical levels of PTSD. Paternal support did not prove to predict teenagers’ symptoms in the present study.» (p. 691)