Annabelle Lewis
English 110
Scott Olsen
29 October, 2025
The Effects of Child Sexual Abuse
The events that you have experienced throughout your life shape who you are as a person, whether you want them to or not. In adolescence, a person hits a new developmental stage almost weekly, which means the mind is also at its most malleable stage. This is why it is important to recognize how certain traumas experienced at that time can affect one’s life. Specifically, I want to talk about how untreated/repressed child sexual abuse can affect someone from adolescence to adulthood. CSA (child sexual abuse) is far more common than people tend to believe. In fact, according to “Child Sexual Abuse Statistics,” 28% of youths in the United States aged 14-17 have reported being sexually victimized at some point in their lives. Not only is it a difficult thing for people to open up about, but it is nearly impossible to work through without some form of counseling. The effects of it, untreated, can disrupt one’s ability to function in society and a person can be written off as being terrible or callous rather than a hurt and traumatized one. Additionally, not everyone is fully comfortable or able to go to therapy because of many factors that include family pressure, personal fear, stigma surrounding it, or lack of resources. I believe that it’s important to recognize how the effects of a trauma like CSA can impact almost every area of one’s daily life. I believe a good start is to explain what exactly CSA is defined as.
According to “Adult Manifestations of Child Sexual Abuse,” Child sexual abuse is defined as “any sexual activity with a child where consent is not or cannot be given” and can happen between anyone at any age as long as the victim is under 18 years old. It doesn’t have to be physical contact to be counted as child sexual abuse; things like voyeurism and child pornography would also fall under that categorization. According to Whealin and Barnett, the perpetrator is the person who is abusing the child and can be anyone over the age of 18. This includes teachers, coaches, neighbors, parents of friends, family members (including immediate), and many others.
CSA is a lot more common than one might think, and there are a plethora of ways the perpetrator can make the victim comply and stay silent about the abuse. Talking about the perpetrators can give needed insight into how and why this happens. When talking about the people who perpetrate CSA, we sort them into three categories. These categories are persistent, opportunistic, and situational perpetrators. Persistent perpetrators are people who repeatedly abuse children because they are often pedophiles and, in general, have an attraction to adolescents. It is uncommon to encounter this type because, as stated by the article “Who Perpetuates Sexual Abuse?”, “Most perpetrators do not fall under this category”. Opportunistic perpetrators are criminals who abuse children if given the chance. It is unlikely they will groom a child or put much work into performing an act of CSA, for they are not primarily attracted to children. Situational perpetrators are not likely to have a sexual preference for young people. Something that happened in their life has caused them to act the way they do, whether that be past abuse of any kind, lack of success in adult relationships, or distorted beliefs of what is right and wrong. What kind of perpetrator performing the act can have a big difference in the situation of the abuse (Who perpetuates).
Perpetrators also tend to have things in common with each other. For example, most perpetrators are people the victims know or are close to (Child Sexual Abuse Statistics). It is not common that the perpetrator is a stranger, as they already have an ‘in’ with the family. According to “Who Perpetuates Child Sexual Abuse”, 93.9% of CSA is done by a man, though anyone with any trait could be a child sexual abuser.
Once the abuse is perpetuated, whether it happened once or multiple times, there are many reports of the horrible effects that CSA can have on the lives of the victim. They tend to differ in terms of how their traumas are expressed from childhood to adulthood because of the changing mind and body. The reactions that children have are vastly different from the adult reactions. An important part of the healing process is recognizing the trauma and gaining support at a young age, so there is time to work through it.
The effects that CSA has on the adolescent brain often create a socially reclusive child. They tend to have low self-esteem and often have feelings of toxic shame surrounding the abuse. This is due to the fact that they could be embarrassed by the contact or know that what they are engaging in is wrong (Sanderson). Most children will understand that the sexual activity is bad; it is rare that they will not recognize that. A common reason for a victim being unaware of why it’s bad is that they feel comforted by the attention, especially if they don’t receive much of it in their daily life (Whealin and Barnett). According to Sanderson, when the abuse is from a primary caregiver, such as a parent, the shame can come from thoughts of “ I am bad because I am a part of you,” which only adds to the low self-esteem the child is already feeling.
CSA doesn’t just affect the self-esteem of the victim; it also affects their self-image. Oftentimes, a child will have a hard time recognizing and forming a sense of self because the perpetrator tends to project an imposed identity based on how they perceive the child. This causes a lot of abnormal behavior in school and other social settings (Sanderson).
Children who are being abused may engage in inappropriate behavior surrounding repetitive pretend play, where they express aspects of the abuse they are facing at home. The abuse causes a lack of boundaries, in terms of setting and respecting them, which causes inappropriate play with other children. Boys specifically might have a hard time with being cruel to others and acting out in social settings because of a lack of emotional regulation. These children often will be brushed off as being “bad kids” rather than being investigated for why a child could be acting this way (Whealin and Barnett). Because children tend to be reclusive, angry, or unaware of the wrongness in response to the sexual abuse, it can be difficult for them to talk about it. This causes an increase in adverse reactions to it as adolescents grow into teenagers.
Many teenagers have similar reactions to abuse as children do, with additional troubles that come with growing up and maturing. For example, in terms of intimacy, they tend to be less cautious and safe about it. In fact, when comparing males who have a history of being sexually abused and ones who didn’t, the males with a history of abuse were two times more likely to have unprotected sex and five times more likely to cause a teenage pregnancy (Child Sexual Abuse Statistics). These can carry over as teenagers turn into adults if safety is not taught and help is not offered.
In adolescence, since the victims of CSA are not able to or have a hard time finding a sense of self-image, self-esteem, and self-regulation, this often produces emotionally unstable adults. The most common after effects of CSA are Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), emotional reactions like humiliation and fear, a distorted image of self, and a distorted perception of sexual experiences, all of which will continue to fester and grow as the victim continues not to seek help.
Relationships are something adults with CSA typically struggle with. People who have trauma from sexual assault can believe the abuse is their fault. This is one of the many reasons adult victims of CSA can have a hard time forming and being in a healthy relationship with another person, whether it be romantic or platonic. They struggle with knowing how to maintain important things that come with going into a relationship, like boundaries and trust. When in romantic relationships, since their views of sexual experiences can be warped, adult victims may become triggered or have conflicting feelings about sex compared to their partners. Since adult survivors of CSA are more likely to have 50 or more intercourse partners, it can further warp their sense of self (Adult Manifestations).
Survivors of this abuse can incorporate unhealthy ways of dealing with the anxiety that comes with having experienced CSA. This includes self-harming and impulsivity, which can make being in a relationship with a person struggling with these things very difficult. It can cause distance between the survivor and others around them. Half of the time, the survivor won’t be the one starting the relationship because of a perceived need to protect themselves, which can mean shutting others out to avoid the possibility of trauma being repeated. This can also be referred to as Traumaphobia, something that works closely with PTSD, another common aftereffect of CSA (Sanderson).
When specifically looking at Adult survivors of CSA versus Child survivors, it is found that adults are much better at masking their trauma than adolescents. Adults tend to know what behaviors might tick someone off as abnormal, so they compensate by appearing very intelligent, charming, polite, and high functioning. They will even start to imitate or take on attitudes imposed by others due to them not having a clear self-imposed identity due to trauma. Short term, this is easily maintained. But long-term, it’s almost impossible for these individuals to keep up the facade. Being around people tends to make it easier to fake personality traits; when a person is alone, they have to primarily focus on themselves. This often causes fear because many survivors have gotten so used to imposed identities that the thought of their authentic self emerging is a terrifying one. Some adults are much better at keeping up the facade of being mentally sound than others, and it’s often not as easy as you would think to catch the signs of trauma or PTSD (Sanderson).
When looking at the movie Lee directed by Ellen Kuras, you can see how the CSA that the main character Lee experienced could explain her actions in the movie and in real life. The movie is about a woman photographer named Lee, who was a model turned war journalist. The film follows her journey photographing World War II. Towards the end of the movie, after an emotional breakdown, she tells her editor and friend that, as a child, she had been sexually assaulted by a family friend with whom she was staying while her mother was sick. This brings together many common circumstances and aftereffects. When looking at after effects, Lee mentions her past of having many romantic partners as often as she can, a common theme for people who experience CSA. She was also a very clearly depressed woman whose emotional regulation was not the greatest for a person of her age. You can also see the parallels of the man who assaulted her being someone who was close and trusted by her family. She was told never to speak about it by her mother, so the event went unresolved and repressed. Lee is a great example of an adult who was good at hiding their trauma because it seems the people in the movie were just as surprised by her opening up as the audience was (Lee).
As stated before, not everyone is going to be good at or want to mask the emotions that they are feeling inside. Singer/songwriter Elliot Smith is a great example of an adult affected by CSA who let it consume his life due to the fact that he was unable to stop the constant flow of memories. Smith’s trauma came from his stepfather emotionally, physically, and sexually abusing him throughout his childhood. This caused him to navigate life as a broken, scared, and anxious man. He was very depressed and uncaring of his well-being, with an addiction to alcohol and later hard drugs like cocaine, crack cocaine, and heroin (Chapin). To deal with the pain of CSA, some people will turn to substances in an attempt to ‘turn off the brain’. In Smith’s case, the drugs and alcohol were an obvious attempt to nullify the feelings he sings about in his many songs. For example, his song ‘Between the Bars’ is a song written from the perspective of his alcoholism. With the lyrics telling him to “Drink up baby” to forget “the potential you’ll be but you’ll never see”, “the pressure of days”, and “the images stuck in your head”(Smith), he gives the listener a glimpse into his headspace and the reason behind his drinking. It shows his depression and references the trauma that he can’t handle when he is sober.
Smith’s case brings up a dynamic of CSA that only occurs in immediate families when one parent is the perpetrator and the other is either unaware or ignorant of the happenings. The child will be afraid to engage too much with the non-abusive parent because of the fear that if they did, the non-abusive parent would join in with the abuse. It causes a lot of children to become something called a “Psychological Orphan” due to feeling they don’t have a safe attachment to either parent. This can also be brought up by the child asking another parent to do something about the abuse, but being met with a negative reaction. In Smith’s song ‘Same Song’, he mentions his step-father by name, exclaiming “Charlie beat you up week after week and when you grow up you’re going to be a freak” (Smith), stating who specifically the abuse came from. This caused a strenuous relationship with his mother, which is sung about in songs like ‘Wouldn’t Mama be Proud’, Waltz #2 (XO), Southern Belle, and many more. In these songs and many others, he states his disdain with the fact that his mother could be with a man who hurt both of them so much. This abuse he experienced turned him into a man who lived a pained and sad life, and possibly is the reason he died. He was found by his girlfriend at the time with two stab wounds in his chest, the knife still sticking out of the second one. A possible, but unconfirmed suicide, with his death being labeled as “undetermined”. Suicide is not an uncommon outcome for the victims of CSA.
Trauma can poke its ugly head out of a person in many different ways that aren’t always rational or normal. Child Sexual Assault is a gut-wrenching thing that happens to children every day, and is, to this day, not talked about enough as something you should be seeking help for. The effects can be life-ruining and all-encompassing, especially as one transitions into adulthood. It causes a lack of development in important skills needed to navigate the world. The more it is recognized, the more people will feel comfortable talking about it. Somebody, somewhere, could be sitting in a room waiting to hear the words they don’t know that they need to hear. For the realization to hit and for them to realize that you are not alone, no matter the place, time, or circumstance.
Works Cited
“Adult Manifestations of Childhood Sexual Abuse.” American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists, Aug. 2011,
bbjbjknkhttps://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2011/08/adult-manifedndedndstations-of-childhood-sexual-abuse.
Chapin, Sasha. “Elliot Smith is Sad, Like You.” Hazlift. Oct, 2015,
https://hazlitt.net/feature/elliott-smith-sad-you
“Child Sexual Abuse Statistics.” National Center for Victims of Crime,
https://victimsofcrime.org/child-sexual-abuse-statistics/.
“Lee”. Directed by Ellen Kuras, performance by Kate Winslet, Sky Originals, 2023
Sanderson, Christiane. “Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse.” Kingsley, 2006.
Smith, Elliot. “Between the Bars.” Spotify,
https://open.spotify.com/track/1JbUMtVkQuaAPdHOvncVTm?si=365088f4311645de
Smith, Elliot. “Some Song.” Spotify,
https://open.spotify.com/track/6KwoRjO6Hvql0UAq9zwFLt?si=a3ed804aa22b448c
Whealin J, Barnett E. “Child Sexual Assault.” PTSD: National Center for PTSD. March, 2025,
https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/type/sexual_abuse_child.asp.
“Who perpetuates child sexual abuse?” National Office for Child Safety,
njjnjnnlhttps://www.childsafety.gov.au/about-child-sexual-abuse/who-perpetrates-child-sexual-abuse#comnnnknkmon-characteristics-of-perpetrators.