A Group of Sexually Abused Adolescents' Perceptions of their Future Life-Roles: An Exploratory Study

Sexual abuse of adolescents can have detrimental effects on their perceptions of their different future life-roles. We investigated such perceptions of students with a history of sexual abuse (n=163) as well as typically developing others (n=237). Participants completed the Life-role Inventory of the then called Human Sciences Research Council (Langley, 1990). Between-group comparisons were carried out. Adolescents with a history of sexual abuse reported negative perceptions of themselves fulfilling some of their roles in the future, being committed to these roles and attaching value to them, compared to typically developing others.