One of the psychological impacts that may be experienced by a young boy, such as Ryan, is a feeling of fear. Fear pervades the sexually abused children; in the course of the abuse, in the childhood aftermath of those who have been abused, and al through the remaining part of their lives into adulthood. In his research, Lisak, (2007) found out the victims of childhood sexual abuse described the fear as a feeling that “could be a dull, ever present reality, or a dizzying experience of abject terror” (Lisak, 2007, p.532). Another psychological impact is development of anger. The sexually abused children may feel overwhelmed with anger and they may also have a feeling of being afraid of their anger, suppressing it, and of discovering its existence” (Lisak, 2007, p.532) when they enter into adulthood. This may cause them to become very violent people in the society. There can also be a feeling of helplessness. This may involve the one who has the experience of sexual abuse feeling a deep-seated loss of control: “over one’s physical being, one’s sense of self, one’s sense of agency and self-efficacy, and one’s fate” (Lisak, 2007, p.532). This may contribute towards having a feeling of being lesser human beings. They may have very low self esteem which may affect their social life negatively, to a large extent.
According to Frederick (2010), as on one hand the emotional consequences of sexual abuse to young females relative to young males are not well known, some of the studies that have been conducted indicate that the sexual molestation of the boys or male children has an impact which is more observable, “playing out in substance abuse, school absenteeism, violent behavior and petty crime” (Frederick, 2010, p.7). Some research findings indicate that the sexual molestation of the young boys puts this group at a risk of turning out to be abusers. It is pointed out that prior sexual molestation is regarded to be a risk factor for turning out to be an abuser (Frederick, 2010). This may serve to make the sexually abused children such as Ryan to find it hard to recover from the consequences of the molestation that they have experienced.
There are resilience factors that might help the sexually abused children like Ryan to cope with the aftermath of the sexual abuse that they experience. Resilience can be defined as “a universal capacity which allows a person, group or community to prevent, minimize, or overcome the damaging effects of adversity” (Kansakar, 2008, p. 5). The resilience quality among children offers the capability to get over trauma, and also to offer a response to stress as well as to maintain a sense of hope, identity and meaning. Many personal characteristics have been found in the young people who have portrayed resilient conduct in the course of a crisis in their lives. Such characteristics consist of social competence, great abilities for solving problems, favourable self-esteem and a conviction that they can take control of their own environment. The resilience factor which offers support to resilient conduct is “the presence of emphatic, caring persons in a child’s life that provides sexually abused children the determination and the capacity to deal with their adversity” (Kansakar, 2008).
References
Frederick, J. (2010). Sexual abuse and exploitation of boys in South Asia: a review of research findings legislation, policy and program response. Innocenti Working Paper.Web.
Kansakar, K. (2008). Promoting children’s resilience: a way to combat child abuse. Save the Children, Web.
Lisak, D. (2007). The psychological impact of sexual abuse; content analysis of interviews with male survivors. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 7(4), 525 – 548.