Childhood Sexual Abuse and Mental Health: Theoretical Perspectives

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Mental Health: Theoretical Perspectives

Conceptualization of Childhood sexual abuse and mental health psychological and sociological perspective

Universally defining child abuse is impossible. However as Desai (2010) pointed out, the dominant characteristics in any abuse is the central position of an adult that allows her or him to coerce or force a child into sexual activities. Child abuse includes masturbation, fondling the genitals of the child, digital penetration, oral genital contact and anal and vaginal intercourse. Child abuse can be physical and even non contact abuse such as voyeurism, exposure and pornography. On the other hand, mental health includes psychological, emotional and social well…