Youth Mental Health and Caregiver Emotional Support After Sexual Abuse: Differences Between General and Abuse-Specific Support

Authors

• Melissa SittonFollow

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3918-5327

Subject Area

Psychology, Clinical

Abstract

Caregiver emotional support has been defined and measured in a variety of ways in the literature on child sexual abuse, including a general form of emotional support (i.e., a supportive relationship between a youth and their caregiver) and an abuse-specific form of emotional support (i.e., responses to the youth in supportive ways following the sexual abuse). These two forms of caregiver emotional support may capture different aspects of caregiver-youth interactions and may relate to youth mental health differently. The current study aimed to assess the distinctness of these two forms of caregiver emotional support via factor analysis and structural regression with youth mental health symptoms and related variables (i.e., a sense of mattering to the caregiver, self-blame for the abuse). Participants were 897 youth between 11 and 17 (M_age = 13.96, SD = 1.78; 92.9% female; 63.0% Hispanic/Latino/a) who presented at a child advocacy center after disclosing sexual abuse. Results of factor analyses suggested that general and abuse-specific caregiver emotional support may be separate (but strongly related) constructs. Additionally, the two forms of caregiver emotional support differed in relation to mattering to one’s caregiver and internalizing symptoms, with general caregiver emotional support more strongly related to both than abuse-specific caregiver emotional support. Exploratory analyses indicated that self-blame for the abuse partially explained the association between abuse-specific caregiver emotional support and youth mental health. Findings highlight the potential benefits of capturing both forms of caregiver emotional support to better understand youth mental health after sexual abuse.

Degree Date

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Ernest Jouriles

Second Advisor

Eric Bing

Third Advisor

Akihito Kamata

Fourth Advisor

Chrystyna Kouros

Number of Pages

93

Format

.pdf

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Recommended Citation

Sitton, Melissa, "Youth Mental Health and Caregiver Emotional Support After Sexual Abuse: Differences Between General and Abuse-Specific Support" (2026). Psychology Theses and Dissertations. 68.
https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_psychology_etds/68