Responding to Child Abuse
The disclosure of child sexual abuse can affect the entire family system. If you are a caregiver of a child who has survived sexual abuse, you may want to seek support from family, friends, or a counselor at your local rape-crisis center. You may even want to connect with other caregivers who are going through a similar experience. If you are able to work through your own feelings, you will be better able to support your child. You may be experiencing many emotions right now. Often caregivers will have feelings of anger, sadness, and guilt about what has happened to their child. You may have clear feelings of anger at the person who abused your child, or you may feel confused, especially if the person who abused your child is also someone that you love and trust.
Recognize your own feelings: they are most likely very normal. Also know that your child may have different feelings than you and that is okay. Let your child know that their feelings are also normal and that there are many ways to safely express these feelings.
Effects of child sexual abuse may be similar to those reactions experienced by adults after a sexual assault, found on the next page. Changes in behavior are perhaps the most important thing to note in children, since this is how they communicate. Children may have nightmares, difficulty sleeping, trouble concentrating, display regressive behavior such as thumb-sucking or bed-wetting, or a drop in grades at school.