Ethnic Differences in Symptom Presentation
of Sexually Abused Girls
Paul J. Clear John P. Vincent Gerald E. Harris
ABSTRACT. Although researchers have begun to examine the issue of ethnic and culturalfactors in childhood sexual abuse (CSA), relatively little has been done to look at possibleethnic and cultural differences in psychological symptoms related to CSA. This studyinvestigated the re lationship between ethnicity and symptom presentation among Hispanic,African American, and Caucasian sexually abused girls. The study exam ined the relationshipbetween ethnicity and depression, ethnicity and post-trauma intrusive symptoms, andethnicity and post-trauma avoidance symptoms. Results indicated that African American girlshad significantly
Paul J. Clear, MA, is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Houston.John P. Vincent, PhD, is Professor, Director of Clinical Training, and Director of the Victims’Resource Institute at the University of Houston, TX. Gerald E. Harris, PhD, is Director ofTraining at the Victims’ Resource Institute at the Uni versity of Houston, TX.
Address correspondence to: John P. Vincent, PhD, 126 Heyne Boulevard, University ofHouston, Houston, TX 77204 (E-mail: jvincent@ub.edu).
This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the Ima Hogg Endowment of the HoggFoundation for Mental Health. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Hogg Foundation fortheir continued support of our research on mental health treatment for child victims of sexualabuse.
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