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Early Sexual Abuse and Clinical Depression in Adult Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

A. Bifulco ,
G. W. Brown  and
Z. Adler
A. Bifulco*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy & Social Science, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (University of London), 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA
G. W. Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy & Social Science, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (University of London), 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA
Z. Adler
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy & Social Science, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (University of London), 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence was studied in 286 working-class mothers living in Islington, who were contacted on three occasions over a two-year period. The sample was collected primarily to study current vulnerability factors in the onset of depression, but childhood measures were also included to look at longer-term risk factors. Twenty-five women – 9% of the sample – reported sexual abuse involving physical contact before age 17 and, of these, 64% had case depression in a three-year period (which included the year before first interview). While such abuse was related to other earlier stressful experiences such as parental indifference, violence to the child and institutional stay, it was associated with an increased risk of depression over and above these factors. Sexual abuse before age 17 also related to having been divorced/separated or never having married/cohabited.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 159 , Issue 1 , July 1991 , pp. 115 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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