Psychological repercussions of adults who suffered sexual abuse in childhood

Abstract

Objectives: to correlate sexual abuse in childhood with the psychological repercussions of the victims in adulthood and highlight the importance of addressing the lack of preparation of the judicial system, the blaming of victims, and failures in access to education and information about sexuality. Methods: a literature review was conducted using descriptive and analytical methods using data published in the last ten (10) years in the PubMed and Scielo Brasil databases. Results: 13 articles from PubMed and ten (10) articles from Scielo Brasil were selected for analysis. It is observed that sexual abuse in childhood has repercussions that go beyond the psychological and cognitive level, affecting other areas, such as changes in brain structure, physical health problems, development of risk behaviors, and difficulties in establishing relationships and social benefits, in addition to a reduction in life expectancy. Conclusions: there are many negative impacts on the lives of victims of child sexual abuse. Physical and psychological care aimed at victims of child abuse goes beyond childhood, demanding attention in subsequent years and during adult life since the trauma has repercussions in different ways, generating negative repercussions on the quality of life of those abused. There is a need to implement teaching and training strategies for professionals in the field of education to identify and report cases of sexual violence, as well as the essential need to create spaces to address this issue in schools.