Skip to main content
PMC home page
Archives of Disease in Childhood logoLink to Archives of Disease in Childhood
. 2002 Mar;86(3):164–167. doi: 10.1136/adc.86.3.164

Somatic and psychological problems in a cohort of sexually abused boys: a six year follow up case-control study

L Price 1, A Maddocks 1, S Davies 1, L Griffiths 1
PMCID: PMC1719103  PMID: 11861230

Abstract

Aims: To obtain information about the health and well being of 108 boys six years after their involvement with the same paedophile.

Methods: Case–control study of the health records of 93 male victims of a major episode of school based child sexual abuse and 93 matched controls. Interviews with a sample of their general practitioners.

Results: The number and frequency of reported health problems were similar in both cases and controls. However, abused boys were more likely than controls to present with symptoms that persisted for more than a year (31 cases compared with 10 controls).

Conclusions: Boys who have previously suffered sexual abuse at school did not utilise primary health care services more than a group of age matched controls. They did not present with psychological or somatic problems different from those presented by non-abused boys. However, abused boys were more likely to complain of persistent somatic or psychological problems lasting more than a year. This pattern appeared to persist after the abuse had stopped and the perpetrator imprisoned.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (128.3 KB).

Figure 1 .

Figure 1

Open in a new tab

Number of boys consulting each practitioner.

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Antao V., Maddocks A., Street E., Sibert J. R. A case-control study of somatic and behavioural symptoms in sexually abused boys. Arch Dis Child. 1996 Sep;75(3):237–238. doi: 10.1136/adc.75.3.237. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Arnold R. P., Rogers D., Cook D. A. Medical problems of adults who were sexually abused in childhood. BMJ. 1990 Mar 17;300(6726):705–708. doi: 10.1136/bmj.300.6726.705. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Black C. A., DeBlassie R. R. Sexual abuse in male children and adolescents: indicators, effects, and treatments. Adolescence. 1993 Spring;28(109):123–133. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cahill C., Llewelyn S. P., Pearson C. Long-term effects of sexual abuse which occurred in childhood: a review. Br J Clin Psychol. 1991 May;30(Pt 2):117–130. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1991.tb00927.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Felitti V. J. Long-term medical consequences of incest, rape, and molestation. South Med J. 1991 Mar;84(3):328–331. doi: 10.1097/00007611-199103000-00008. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Ferguson A. G. How good is the evidence relating to the frequency of childhood sexual abuse and the impact such abuse has on the lives of adult survivors? Public Health. 1997 Nov;111(6):387–391. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Friedrich W. N. Behavioral manifestations of child sexual abuse. Child Abuse Negl. 1998 Jun;22(6):523–539. doi: 10.1016/s0145-2134(98)00020-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Friedrich W. N., Schafer L. C. Somatic symptoms in sexually abused children. J Pediatr Psychol. 1995 Oct;20(5):661–670. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/20.5.661. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Frothingham T. E., Hobbs C. J., Wynne J. M., Yee L., Goyal A., Wadsworth D. J. Follow up study eight years after diagnosis of sexual abuse. Arch Dis Child. 2000 Aug;83(2):132–134. doi: 10.1136/adc.83.2.132. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Garralda M. E. Practitioner review: Assessment and management of somatisation in childhood and adolescence: a practical perspective. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1999 Nov;40(8):1159–1167. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Gold S. N., Lucenko B. A., Elhai J. D., Swingle J. M., Sellers A. H. A comparison of psychological/psychiatric symptomatology of women and men sexually abused as children. Child Abuse Negl. 1999 Jul;23(7):683–692. doi: 10.1016/s0145-2134(99)00041-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Herman J., Russell D., Trocki K. Long-term effects of incestuous abuse in childhood. Am J Psychiatry. 1986 Oct;143(10):1293–1296. doi: 10.1176/ajp.143.10.1293. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Holmes W. C., Slap G. B. Sexual abuse of boys: definition, prevalence, correlates, sequelae, and management. JAMA. 1998 Dec 2;280(21):1855–1862. doi: 10.1001/jama.280.21.1855. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Kramer T., Garralda M. E. Psychiatric disorders in adolescents in primary care. Br J Psychiatry. 1998 Dec;173:508–513. doi: 10.1192/bjp.173.6.508. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Moody C. W. Male child sexual abuse. J Pediatr Health Care. 1999 May-Jun;13(3 Pt 1):112–119. doi: 10.1016/s0891-5245(99)90072-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Palmer R. L., Bramble D., Metcalfe M., Oppenheimer R., Smith J. Childhood sexual experiences with adults: adult male psychiatric patients and general practice attenders. Br J Psychiatry. 1994 Nov;165(5):675–679. doi: 10.1192/bjp.165.5.675. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sheldrick C. Adult sequelae of child sexual abuse. Br J Psychiatry Suppl. 1991 May;(10):55–62. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Stern A. E., Lynch D. L., Oates R. K., O'Toole B. I., Cooney G. Self esteem, depression, behaviour and family functioning in sexually abused children. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1995 Sep;36(6):1077–1089. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1995.tb01352.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Walker E. A., Gelfand A., Katon W. J., Koss M. P., Von Korff M., Bernstein D., Russo J. Adult health status of women with histories of childhood abuse and neglect. Am J Med. 1999 Oct;107(4):332–339. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9343(99)00235-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Watkins B., Bentovim A. The sexual abuse of male children and adolescents: a review of current research. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1992 Jan;33(1):197–248. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1992.tb00862.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Archives of Disease in Childhood are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES