Sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Child sexual abuse (CSA) has been associated with mental health disorders throughout life during childhood, adolescence and adulthood; one of the most prevalent mental health conditions after CSA is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present systematic review and meta-analysis aims to examine the association between CSA and PTSD in children and adolescents, evaluating also the role of potential effect modifiers, such as gender and geographic region. Participants were sexually abused (vs. CSA-free) children, adolescents and young adults, up to 21 years of age, with or without a PTSD diagnosis. Settings of eligible studies spanned school, college, university, community, hospital and non-hospital mental health facilities. Eligible studies were sought in PUBMED, Epsilon M Beta Alpha SE, PSYCINFO and GOOGLE SCHOLAR databases; end-of-search was set at August 31, 2020. Random-effects (DerSimonian-Laird) models were used for the pooling of studies. Results were reported as pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Twenty-eight studies were identified, including a total cohort of 28,693 subjects. CSA was strongly associated with PTSD, at a similar extent in boys (pooled OR = 2.86, 95% CI 2.09-3.91) and girls (pooled OR = 2.38, 95% CI 1.76-3.23); meta-regression with gender confirmed the non-significant effect of gender. The association was present in all examined geographic regions. CSA is strongly associated with PTSD in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, irrespectively of gender. Future studies should opt for thorough assessment of confounders and examine regions with paucity of studies, such as East Asia and Latin America.