Les enfants victimes d'agression sexuelle : l'association entre leur trajectoire en protection de la jeunesse et des symptômes de détresse psychologique

Child victims of sexual abuse can experience a variety of difficulties as a result of their victimization. Among these difficulties, psychological consequences can be experienced, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms. Following the disclosure of the sexual abuse, the child's services trajectory may vary depending on the degree of intervention by the youth welfare services, resulting in significant changes in the child’s life. Friedrich's (1990) theoretical model stipulates that these changes, which can involve a breakdown of family ties (e.g.: resulting from the placement of the child or prohibition of contact with the presumed perpetrator), could affect the child’s feeling of guilt and may also be related to the child’s feeling of guilt about the causes of the sexual abuse. Another theory stipulates that the child’s emotional response following disclosure may be influenced by a number of personal, familial and contextual factors (Spaccarelli, 1994). Although the influence of some contextual and familial factors has been explored in the past (such as the importance of support on the child's psychological well-being following the disclosure of the abuse (Lemieux et al., 2019; Quas et Goodman, 2012; Back et al., 2011)), little is known about the influence of the decisions that are taken by the youth welfare services (placement of the child or the ongoing involvement of youth welfare services, for example). Objective: The objective of this research is to document the psychological symptoms of child victims of sexual abuse in relation to their services trajectory. This project explores the influence of contextual factors (placement of the child, prohibition of contact with the abuser, intensity of involvement of professionals in the child's life, continued involvement of youth welfare services and the number of stressful events related to disclosure) and personal factors (avoidance strategies and guilt) on the child’s emotional state (psychological distress). Method: There are two main questions leading this project: 1) Which factors can influence the psychological distress of child victims of sexual abuse? A sub-question emerges from this first main question: do boys and girls experience the same level of psychological distress and the same internal factors? 2) Do external factors to the child bring an additional influence to the child's internal factors on psychological distress? Child victims of sexual abuse were recruited by the Centre d'expertise Marie-Vincent (CEMV) (n = 369), comprising 249 girls and 120 boys. These children and one of their non-offending parents completed questionnaires to assess the impact of the sexual abuse. In order to answer the research questions, hierarchical regression analyses and test t for independents groups were performed. Results: The intensity of professional involvement in the child’s life, guilt and avoidance strategies were associated with more psychological distress experienced by child victims of sexual abuse.  The final hierarchical regression model predicts nearly 41% of the variance on the psychological distress score. Conclusion: The results obtained are in part consistent with current literature. Further research would be needed, particularly to determine whether other components of the child's taking charge trajectory, such as supervised contact with the abuser, can be significantly associated with the psychological distress experienced by those children.

Keyphrases: sexual abuse, childhood, depression, anxiety, psychological distress, culpability, avoidance strategies, youth welfare