Caregiver emotional support and youth mental health after sexual abuse.

Abstract

Emotional support from a caregiver is theorized to benefit adolescents after sexual abuse, yet the empirical evidence for this is inconsistent. The present study examines the cross-sectional relation between caregiver emotional support and youth mental health symptoms after sexual abuse, addressing several methodological factors that may explain why previous studies failed to find the relation (sample size, approach to measurement). Participants were 460 youth between 11 and 17 (M_age = 13.78, SD = 1.77; 92.4% female; 56.3% Hispanic/Latino/a) who presented at a child advocacy center after disclosing sexual abuse, along with their nonoffending caregiver (M_age = 39.65, SD = 8.52). Youth and caregivers completed measures of caregiver emotional support and youth mental health. Results of multivariate multilevel modeling indicated that youth reports of caregiver emotional support were associated with youth mental health symptoms regardless of the informant of the symptoms (caregiver reports of youth mental health symptoms: B = -0.11, p = .006, d = .25; youth reports of mental health symptoms: B = -0.21, p < .001, d = .50). Caregiver reports of their emotional support were not associated with youth mental health symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of obtaining youth reports of caregiver emotional support in attempts to understand and address youth mental health symptoms following sexual abuse. The sample size and approach to measurement in this study bolster confidence in the findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).