1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«[T]his study aimed to: 1) identify profiles of intergenerational victimization (childhood exposure to IPV [intimate partner violence], IPV victimization, CSA [child sexual abuse]) in sexually abused preschool and school-aged children and their mother using LCA [Latent Class Analysis]; and 2) document the outcomes associated with these profiles in terms of maternal and child psychological functioning (maternal psychological distress, PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder] symptoms, and dissociation; child dissociation and emotion dysregulation).» (p. 3)

Questions/Hypothèses :
The authors «hypothesize that in [the] sample of sexually abused children and their mothers, various profiles of intergenerational victimization will be identified. While the exact configurations cannot be predicted, [they] expect one profile to involve highly polyvictimized dyads and one profile to involve dyads where few other traumatic events, apart from the sexual abuse of the child, are present. As past findings related to cumulative trauma in individuals, [the authors] expect that mental health difficulties in mothers and children will rise in a dose-response manner as the number of intergenerational victimization experiences increases.» (p. 3)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«This study is a secondary analysis of data of a clinical sample of 997 sexually abused children aged 3 to 14 years old and their mothers. The recruitment of participants took place at five specialized intervention centres from Quebec, Canada, offering services to sexually abused children and their families.» (p. 4)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The results show that, «[a]s expected, profiles reflecting different degrees and configurations of cumulative interpersonal trauma experiences were identified, which attests to the heterogeneity of families seeking services following a child’s disclosure of CSA. As hypothesized, one class involved dyads affected mainly by the sexual abuse of the child, with fewer other traumas as compared to the full sample and the other classes. One class included a high percentage of sexually abused mothers that experienced high levels of severe psychological IPV to which children were exposed. The third class involved highly victimized mothers in terms of physical and psychological IPV, but a somewhat small percentage of children who were exposed to this victimization. Finally, in line with [the] hypothesis, the fourth class included highly victimized dyads on all accounts.» (p. 7-8) Also, «[a]s expected, mothers in the CSA Only group reported the lowest levels of psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, and dissociation. However, the dose-response relation between increasing numbers of interpersonal traumas and maternal psychological functioning was not as clear as expected based on previous findings […]. Indeed, maternal dissociation was similar in dyads from the CSA Only and Intergenerational CSA with Psychological IPV groups and lower in these groups than in the two other, more victimized groups.» (p. 8)