Instruments used for assessing psychological consequences of childhood sexual abuse in adulthood: Bibliographic review

Abstract

The present systematic review study shows the available evidence of the psychological tools used for assessing in general terms the level of long-term psychological and emotional repercussions of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in adulthood. The sample consisted of 26 original articles, with a total of 109 applied psychological instruments. We found that 85.33% of reviewed instruments evaluated potential clinical indicators and 14.67% corresponded to ad-hoc instruments, not validated and created by researchers to collect sociodemographic information referring to the CSA. In this review, we concluded that there is not a single methodology for the psychological evaluation of CSA in adulthood, the most widely extended methodology is the use of tools that allow the evaluation of psychological and emotional aspects present in the long-term problems. This review questions the complementarity of the use of instruments to delve into the problems that affect of victims of CSA.

Keywords

• childhood sexual abuse
• psychological instruments
• psychological assessment
• long-terms effects
• psychological consequences