The Impact of a History of Child Sexual Abuse on Maternal Response to Allegations of Sexual Abuse Concerning Her Child

Mothers exhibit a wide range of emotional responses to the discovery that their children may have been sexually abused. The clinical lore suggests that a personal history of child sexual abuse (CSA) may influence maternal reactions to such a discovery. Interestingly, however, while the impact of a history of CSA has been examined in many different populations, the impact of such a history has rarely been studied with respect to nonoffending mothers of CSA victims. The current investigation, therefore, aimed to compare nonoffending mothers with and without a history of CSA with respect to demographic variables, psychosocial functioning, and personal responses to the CSA allegations concerning their children. Nonoffending mothers with a history of CSA exhibited more general symptom distress as measured by the SCL-90-R and reported greater feelings of aloneness in facing the crisis of the CSA allegations. However, maternal history of CSA did not differentiate the groups with respect to demographic variables or maternal responses to the CSA allegations concerning their children. Implications of these findings are discussed.