Sintomas de transtorno de estresse pós-traumático, depressão e ansiedade em mães de vítimas de abuso sexual

Abstract

The present work aimed to analyze the occurrence of symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression of mothers and if they were related to the symptoms of their children who suffered sexual abuse. The specific objectives were: to describe the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety in mothers of sexually abused children; to analyze whether social class, educational level, race, income, sexual abuse of the child being intrafamilial or extrafamilial, mother had suffered sexual abuse, were predictive factors for the symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression in children/adolescents and their mothers. Had been participated in this research 65 mothers of children aged between 6 and 18 years, who was recruited through social networks and support groups. For the research, the following instruments have been applied: Child Behavior Checklist; Beck Anxiety Inventory; Beck Depression Inventory; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist and Questionnaire with sociodemographic data and characteristics of sexual abuse. Data collection was performed online through Google Forms. The results showed severe and moderate levels of anxiety and depression, as well as post-traumatic stress in 70.8% of the sample of participants. Clinical results were obtained on 12 children's CBCL items. Multiple linear regression analyzes were performed, demonstrating that sociodemographic variables, intrafamilial sexual abuse, the mother having been sexually abused, and CBCL variables were not predictors for mothers' anxiety and depression symptoms. For the mothers' post-traumatic stress symptoms, it was observed that the children's somatic complaints were predictive, explaining 70,8% of the outcome. It is concluded that most of the symptoms presented by the children who suffered sexual abuse are not related to the mothers' symptoms, showing that the occurrence of sexual abuse, in itself, is a factor of illness for the mothers.