Abstract

Researchers have thoroughly documented the experiences of sexual abuse survivors; however, many complications may arise for adult survivors who are religious. To our knowledge, there have been no previous studies regarding childhood sexual abuse survivors who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This qualitative research project sought to explore the questions, “What are the gendered messages of femininity that Latter-day Saint childhood sexual abuse survivors have received, and how have these messages impacted their healing from sexual abuse?” Fourteen participants were interviewed as part of a qualitative investigation in a semi-structured format with open-ended questions from an emergent grounded theory design. The researchers analyzed the interviews to reveal results that are grounded in participants’ reported experiences. Six themes arose under the category of Harmful Cultural Lesson and Social Norms. An additional theme, Healing through Advocating for Change, presented alongside a theoretical framework of healing, explores the relationship between the harmful cultural messages that Latter-day Saint sexual abuse survivors internalize, the subsequent impact on a survivor’s sense of self, and alternative trauma-informed lessons that lead to healing. The author(s) present these results along with the implications for therapists working with Latter-day Saint sexual abuse survivors, recommendations for church policy changes, and future research directions.

摘要

研究人员彻底记录了性虐待幸存者的经历；然而，对于有宗教信仰的成年幸存者来说，可能会出现许多并发症。据我们所知，之前没有关于作为耶稣基督后期圣徒教会成员的儿童性虐待幸存者的研究。这个定性研究项目试图探讨以下问题：“后期圣徒童年性虐待幸存者收到的女性气质的性别信息是什么，这些信息如何影响他们从性虐待中的康复？” 作为定性调查的一部分，14 名参与者以半结构化的形式接受了采访，其中包含来自新兴扎根理论设计的开放式问题。研究人员分析了访谈，以揭示基于参与者报告的经历的结果。在以下类别下出现了六个主题有害的文化课和社会规范。另一个主题，通过倡导变革来治愈，与治疗的理论框架一起呈现，探讨后期圣徒性虐待幸存者内化的有害文化信息、对幸存者自我意识的后续影响以及替代性创伤之间的关系——导致治愈的知情课程。作者介绍了这些结果以及对与后期圣徒性虐待幸存者一起工作的治疗师的影响、对教会政策变化的建议以及未来的研究方向。