Estratégias de enfrentamento (Coping) com vítimas de abuso sexual infantil: revisão de escopo

Abstract

The experience of those who have been exposed to child sexual abuse is conceptualized as a stressful event and, consequently, encompasses the use of different coping strategies. That is, cognitive and behavioral efforts aimed at minimizing and modifying the way the individual responds to circumstances. This study aimed to identify and discuss the use of coping by victims of child sexual abuse. For this, a scope review was performed in the databases of PubMed, PsycINFO and SciELO, selecting 30 articles at the end. In view of the results, people who were sexually abused in childhood developed predominantly unadaptive coping patterns, including increased avoidance, dissociative, avoidant and self-harming symptoms, alcohol use and multiple substances and risky sexual behaviors. However, although in a smaller comparison, they also allowed the development of adaptive coping strategies, such as resilience, religiosity, trust dialogue with health professionals, and support from the network.