Resilience in Child Sexual Abuse: Role of Protective Factors

Child sexual abuse is a major public health problem with significant psychosocial consequences (Afifi & Macmillan, 2011). All child sexual abuse victims do not depict adverse consequences in later life. The variability of impact in a potentially traumatic experience like child sexual abuse is explained by the construct of resilience and it being the outcome of the influence of certain protective factors (Henley, 2010). The present article conceptualizes resilience in the area of child sexual abuse where individual, familial and community level factors are identified as predictors to fostering resilience. Formulation and development of effective interventions to reduce the impairment following child sexual abuse and to foster resilience in children, adolescents and survivors are recommended