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3.11 Risk and resilience factors
Some children are more vulnerable to stressful life events than others . Resilience is the ability to thrive even in the face of challenges . It is therefore important to understand the factors that help healing and enable children to cope .
Research has shown that resilience is not just a personal characteristic . An individual ’ s ability to cope is complemented by external factors that protect the person against risk .
Resilience factors include : 1 . Genetic inheritance . We are born with degrees of robustness or vulnerability . 2 . Experiences before exposure to trauma . 3 . The character of the trauma event .
” Research has shown that resilience is not just a personal characteristic . An individual ’ s ability to cope is complemented by external factors that protect the person against risk .”
4 . The situation immediately after the trauma event ( for example , how quickly help arrived ). 5 . The situation in the long term ( for example , the quality of rehabilitation support received ). 6 . For children who are sexually abused , the most crucial factors are whether they have a safe attachment person in their life , whether their story is believed , and whether the perpetrator is made unambiguously responsible for the abuse .
KEY TO KNOW
3.12 Disclosure of Sexual Abuse
Why do most children not talk about sexual abuse or rape ? Where to start ?
Children keep such experiences secret for many reasons . In many cases , they do so because the perpetrator threatens to punish them if they tell anyone or threatens to punish or tell their parents . The child may also imagine such threats ; or remain silent from shame or guilt , believing that he or she is responsible for what happened , or that the family or society will reject or condemn the child for what has happened . The child may feel confused loyalty ; or remain silent out of respect for authority , or because she or he believes it should not ‘ rat ’ or ‘ tell tales ’. The child may have no independent adult to hand who it trusts sufficiently . In addition , depending on age and emotional maturity , the child may lack language to describe what has happened ; and , if the experience was traumatic , the child ’ s memory of the events may be fragmented or may not be stored as a coherent narrative . In this case , the child may be in no position to tell the story at all . Children will seek to protect others and themselves . Often , for their own security or because they cannot make sense of it or because it is too painful , they will simply try ( but in vain ) to put the experience out of their mind .
Children therefore have many reasons for not disclosing their abuse . They include fear of punishment , self-blame , and lack of words . However , even if they are silent , children that have been abused sexually nevertheless reveal symptoms and behaviours that can indicate what has happened to them . These change with age and maturation ( see section 2.2 ). The signs may include collapse of trust , sexualised behaviours , repetitive play , and somatic pain . If a child who has been abused sexually cannot tell its story in words , it can often communicate in other ways , for example through drawing and play .