Sexual Desire Effect

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The effect of sexual abuse on sexual functioning such as low sexual desire began to be noticed in the 1970’s. 80% of female CSA survivors admitted to sexual problems, including low sexual desire (Courtois, 1999). Since then, an abundance of studies on the effects of CSA on sexual desire have been done. Different studies included statistics on an inability to enjoy sex and lack of interest in having sex (McGuire & Wagner, 1978). It was also discovered that females were avoiding sexual intercourse, experienced lack of initiation of sex, reaching an orgasm, and denied their sexuality (McGuire & Wagner, 1978).
Sarwer and Durlak (1995) acknowledged specific components of sexual abuse, such as sexual penetration or receiving and performing oral
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If they are victims of CSA they are much more inclined to discover the “badness” in the offender or in the sexual act itself. They were plentiful studies done to support the hypothesis that female victims of CSA are more likely to develop a fear of sex in their adulthood life. Indeed, Swaby and Morgan (2009) propose that sexual dysfunctions such as low desire could be a consequence of anxiety. As we know, when we decide if something is bad, frightening, and terrifying, then it could result in a fear response. In this way a positive view of sexuality results in internal signs of badness. So, if a negative sexual encounter is experienced, then it would result in externalizing behavior of experiencing low desire. Equally, those negative views could correlate with the feelings of shame and externalize through fear reactions (low sexual desire together with withdrawal and apathy). Moreover, Morgan and Cummings (1999) explored negative consequences of women who continued to be affected by childhood sexual abuse. These included a fear and distrust of men and sexual problems as the most frequent long term outcomes of the abuse.
Recently, clinical interest on CSA survivors has increased with an attention to adult sexual functioning. In 2007, it was assessed that in the United States 60,344 children out of 794,000 victims of abuse were sexually abused, a7.6% prevalence rate (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2009). In 2009, the records of sexually abused children had increased to 68,400 out of 720,000 abused victims, a 9.5% prevalence rate (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

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