Women incest survivors' relationships with mothers and female friends.

Abstract

This study explored the relationships of female incest survivors with other women, including their mothers. Although the impact of child sexual abuse on adult interpersonal functioning has received increasing theoretical attention, few studies have focused on women's relationships with each other and fewer still have used a comparison group. Sixty-eight survivors and 93 women who had not been incestuously abused completed questionnaires about the extent and quality of their friendships with women and relationships to their mothers. Because survivors are often said to be angry at their mothers and to blame them for the sexual abuse, anger and blame were also investigated. Results indicated that survivors had difficulty initiating friendships, disclosing personal information, asserting themselves, and managing conflict. They were less certain of the endurance of their closest friendships, which were in fact reported to be shorter in duration than those of the comparison group. However, survivors had as many friends as did non-survivors, and were also able to establish intimate, trusting relationships with at least one woman. Their relationships with their mothers were troubled as compared with non-survivors. While survivors were angrier at their mothers than were non-survivors, they were also angrier at their fathers. They did not blame their mothers for the incest except when their mothers were perpetrators, and results suggested that survivors' anger at their mothers was not solely a function of blame for the sexual abuse. Findings indicated that survivors' anger was also a function of physical, emotional, and other abuse inflicted by mothers, and of a history of multiple traumas not limited to incest. Survivors were angrier in general than were non-survivors, and had a tendency to suppress anger of which they remained aware. This appeared to be adaptive in their relationships with others. It was suggested that some survivors may benefit from assertiveness training, conflict management training, and group treatment involving mother-daughter pairs.