Impacts of Child Sexual Abuse on Children: The case of Gondar Town, North West Ethiopia

Abstract

Sexual abuse and exploitation of children is one of the ubiquitous and the most brutal forms of violence against children. This study assessed the impacts of child sexual abuse on sexually abused children in Gondar city. Employing the mixed method, a total of 43(female=38 & male=5) participated in the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Qualitative data were collected through focus group discussion and key informant interview; whereas, quantitative data were collected through standardized scales. Data analyses were undertaken using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitative analyses were conducted by using SPSS version 20. Specifically, frequency, mean and standard deviation were used. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically.. Results show that parental death, family conflict, poverty, illiteracy, drug and substance use are the major causes of child sexual abuse in the study area. Findings also show that post-traumatic stress disorder (Mean=63.2 & SD=6.4), poor self-esteem (Mean=5.4 & SD=1.2) and social interaction anxiety (Mean=31.5 & SD=4.8) as the psychosocial effects of child sexual abuse among sexually abused children. Results also indicate that the community is less emphatic to blame the incidence of child sexual abuse due to socio-cultural belief in the dominance of males over females. Consequently, preventive and remedial actions for incidence of sexual abuse expected from the community are almost absent which aggravates the situation. Findings of the study entail different implications; for instance, focal government and nongovernment organizations should take the initiation to overcome the problem through jointly combating child sexual abuse causes such as poverty and illiteracy. .