The Relationship between Child Sexual Abuse and Major Depression among Low-Income Women: A Function of Growing Up Experiences?

Abstract

This article on the adult sequelae of child sexual abuse (CSA) focused on (a) identifying the rate of major depression among adult survivors and (b) testing the third variable hypothesis that the relationship between CSA and major depression is spurious, a function of other adverse growing up experiences. Subjects included 513 low-income women, of whom 105 had experienced contact sexual abuse. Information on depression was collected with the Depression Module from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule, Third Edition, Revised (DIS-III-R). Third variables included 11 markers of negative growing up experiences including four types of child maltreatment: emotional neglect, physical abuse, physical neglect, and verbal abuse. Findings (a) revealed that CSA victims were almost three times as likely to be depressed as comparison women and (b) failed to support the third variable hypothesis. CSA accounted for variance in the major depression over and above other adverse growing up experiences. Discussion focuses on recommendations for future study.