Stats of childhood sexual abuse

     Three main ideas stood out to me from the reading, presentation and wiki regarding childhood sexual abuse. First, the prevalence is alarming. As a mother of two daughters, it feels unacceptable to consider that there is a 25% chance each of them will experience some type of sexual abuse. I feel like children are socialized to think about "stranger danger", but as we learned the likelihood of a family member or close friend sexually abusing a child is much higher. Additionally, the risk factors seem somehow "unfair"; essentially children in single parent or step family homes are at great risk of sexual abuse. Divorce and remarriage are such commonplace in our society; I never considered increased risk of childhood sexual abuse as a fall out of this trend.
     The second statistic that saddens me is that women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse are twice as likely to get divorced. Again, it seems so "unfair" that the pain of their childhood affects their happiness in adulthood. It also highlights the importance of therapeutic intervention, both with girls if the abuse becomes apparent, or with couples when the abuse is divulged. The stress of past abuse was portrayed well in the group's case vignette: what appeared as low sexual desire did not stem from a couple relational problem, but if the abuse history had not been revealed, the secret     would have continued to drive a wedge of misunderstanding and hurt between the couple.
     The final statistic shed some hope for me. Binik and Hall asserted that not all people who are victimized by sexual abuse then experience sexual problems in adulthood. While I understand the correlation would not be surprising, it reminds me that individuals are so unique. Just as we learned that when counseling and LGBTQ couple we should not assume that their problems are related to their sexual orientation, I think it is important to not automatically assume that current sexual problems are the result of childhood trauma. Again, I believe emotional healing is the key to severing that correlation; as therapists we have the opportunity to help a person walk away from a legacy of pain.