A COPING MODEL FOR ADULT SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE

A causal model that identifies relationships among sexual abuse situation characteristics, based on Finkelhor and Browne's traumagenic model of childhood sexual abuse; the accomplishment of cognitive coping tasks, based on Taylor's theory of cognitive adaptation; and long-term effects was tested in a group of 149 adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed paths and the goodness of fit of the model Results indicated that the model did not fit the data, but conclusions related to the explanatory power of the model could not be drawn because of the low reliabilities of several of the scales. However five of the hypothesized direct relationships and one of the hypothesized indirect relationships were significant A revised model is proposed and examined.