The Role of Shame and Attributional Style in Children's and Adolescents' Adaptation to Sexual Abuse

Abstract

This study examined the role of shame and a self-blaming attributional style as factors that can help explain the level of psychological distress in child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse. A total of 142 participants (82 children, 60 adolescents) were seen within 8 weeks of discovery of the abuse. Regression analyses were used to examine how age at discovery, gender, abuse characteristics, shame, and attribution were related to depression, self-esteem, and traumatic events sequelae. As expected, shame and self-blaming attributions were strongly related to depression, self-esteem, and traumatic events sequelae and accounted for significant variance even after age, gender, and abuse characteristics had been controlled. The relations between number of abusive events and depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and eroticism were mediated by shame and attributional style.