• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.13-24
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• 2019

Objectives : The goals of the study are how to establish the cohort systems for the children and adolescents victims with sexual abuse in Korea and to identify the risk and protective factors that influence mental health in child sexual abuse (CSA). This is initial assessment data based on the analysis of cohort variables for baseline evaluation of subjects. Methods : We constructed the cohort systems for CSA victims recruited by Seoul Sunflower Children Center, CSA victims protection center. The initial assessment data which consisted of demographic and psychological inventories of CSA victims and their parents/families, psychiatric diagnoses were the results of statistical analysis of 65 subjects under 19 years old for 3 years 7 months. Results : The initial data were followings : female participants, N=56; mean age, 11.6 (SD=4.5); the most sexual assault, molestation 71.8%; victims, family and acquaintance 87.1%; 61.5% of the subjects diagnosed with psychiatric disorder; 29.2% diagnosed with PTSD and 23.1% diagnosed with depression. Mean duration for abuse to report is 1.5 years. Mean score of IES-R-K, TSCYC-avoidant and CBCL-problematic behavior were increased above clinical cut-off. Conclusions : CSA victims tend to have high risks in mental health problem. The cohort study could provide the risk and protective factors of CSA in mental health, and construct the predictive model for mental illness in Korea.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.20-27
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• 2007

Purpose : Child sexual abuse is a significant and serious problem that affects public health and society. Pediatricians are responsible for preventing and detecting sexual abuse of children. The aim of this study was to examine clinical findings of child sexual abuse. Methods : The authors retrospectively studied 292 patients between the ages of 0 and 18 who were referred for evaluation of sexual abuse to the Emergency Department of the National Police Hospital from Oct 1, 2001 to May 5, 2005. Results : Sixty three (21.6 percent) of sexual abuse victims were younger than 6 years of age; 89 (30.5 percent) were 6-12 years of age; and 104 (47.9 percent) were 12-18 years of age. Attack time was the most common between noon and 6 pm. Victims were attacked in their home or nearby (51.4 percent). One hundred fifty six (53.6 percent) offenders were accquaitances, thirty nine (13.4 percent) of whom were family members. The disclosure of attack by parents with abnormal physical symptoms was more common in younger children than in adolescence. Eighty nine (30.5 percent) victims had no specific physical findings, 51 percent had injury to the hymen, 37.3% had injury to external genitalia, and 4 percent had anal injury. One case of gonorrhea and thirteen cases of chlamydia were found. Sperm was found in 19 cases and acid phosphatase was positive in 28 cases. The absence of physical findings and laboratory findings was more common in younger children than in those in adolescence. The time interval from attacks to hospital visits had a significant negative correlation with age. Conclusion : For younger victims, the time interval from attack to hospital visitis was more prolonged. Victims may have no physical evidence of sexual abuse. Therefore, a careful history should be obtained and a through physical examination should be performed. Pediatricians must play a leading role in evaluation and treatment of sexually abused children, considering children,s growth and development. Coordination with other professionals is necessary to provide consultation, medical treatment, and legal assistance for the sexually abused children and families.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.56-64
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• 1995

Family is a primary unit of the major socialization processing for children. Parents among the family members are one of the most important figures from whom the child and adolescent acquire a wide variety of behavior patterns, attitudes, values and norms. An organization of family members product family structural functioning. Abnormal family structure is one of the most important reference models in the learning of antisocial patterns of behavior. Therefore incest and child sexual abuse including spouse abuse, elderly abuse, and neglect occurs in the abnormal family structural setting. In particular, incest, a specific form of sexual abuse, was once thought to be a phenomenon of great rarity, but our clinical experiences, especially over the past decade, have made us aware that incest and child sexual abuse is not rare case and on the increasing trend. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the family problem and dynamics of incest family, and character pattern of post-incest adolescent victim in Korea. A total of 1,838 adolescents from middle and high school(1,237) and juvenile correctional institute(601) were studied, sampled from Korean student population and adolescent delinquent population confined in juvenile correctional institutes, using proportional stratified random sampling method. The subjects' ages ranged from 12 to 21 years. Data were collected through questionnaire survey. Data analysis was done by IBM PC of Behavior Science Center at the Korea university, using SAS program. Statistical methods employed were Chi-square, principal component analysis and t-test etc. The results of this study were as follows ; 1) Of 1,071 subjects, 40(3.7%) reported incest experiences(sibling incest : 1.6% ; another type of incest : 2.1%) in their family setting. 2) The character pattern of post-incest adolescent victim was more socially maladjusted, immature, impulsive, rigid, anxious and dependent than non-incest adolescent. Also they showed some problem in academic performance and their assertiveness. 3) The other family members of incest family revealed more psychological and behavioral problem such as depression, alcoholism, psychotic disorder and criminal act than the non-incest family, even though there is no evidence of the context between them. 4) The family dynamics of incest family tended to be dysfunctional trend, as compared with non-incest family. It showed that the psychological instability of family member, parental rejection toward their children, coldness and indifference among family member and marital discordance between the parents had significant correlation with incest.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.82-90
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• 1998

This study is attempted to examine Korean teachers’ perceptions of mental health problems in students and their attitudes towards psychiatric consultations through a questionnaire survey. The results of this study are as follows. 1) Teachers thought that 5.3% of their students had mental health problems, 1.9% of students required psychiatric evaluation, and 1.2% of students were referred or recommended psychiatric evaluation by their teachers. 2) The most frequent mental health problems in students discovered by teachers were distractibility and inattention, lack of academic skills, and language difficulties in elementary schools；distractibility and inattention, conduct problems, and lack of academic skills in middle schools；and conduct problems, distractibility and inattention, physical symptoms, and substance abuse in high schools. 3) Teachers thought the mental health problems in students were caused by the family environment, psychological factors, the educational system, and a lack of mental health services. 4) Teachers desired smaller classes, improvement of the school environment, more time, regular mental health education, a special program for students with mental health problems, and the counseling staffs or consultants for the school mental health. 5) Teachers consulted with other teachers, the parents of the students, the counseling teachers, the health care teachers, the counseling institutes, the psychiatric clinics, and the principals in descending order to handle the hard case problems. The frequent reasons for failing in psychiatric consultations were the prejudice of parents against psychiatric services, the teachers’ sense of superiority in dealing with the problems of students, the prejudice of teachers themselves against psychiatric practice, and inaccessible professional consultation. 6) About 20.4% of teachers reported they had proposed psychiatric consultations or had recommended their students to receive psychiatric evaluations.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 1997

This study was to know the influence of familial environment and moral development on conduct disorder. Subjects were composed of 47 male and female patients with conduct disorder(patients group), 113 general male and female students(normal group), and 173 juvenile prisoners(JP group). The Korean Form of the Family Environment Scale(FES) was used to assess the family environment of the subjects and the Korean Defining Issues Test(DIT) was used to assess the moral development. Conduct disorder was diagnosed with the DSM-III-R criteria for conduct disorder. The influence of familial environment and moral development on conduct disorder was analyzed with ANOVA and the differences among groups were verified with Scheffe test. There was no difference in the socioeconomic status and the physical abuse by the parents among the three groups. But the rates of divorce or separation of the parents were significantly highest in the JP group and higher in the patients group than in the normal group. Especially the subjects of the JP group experienced the divorce or separation of their parents during the preschool or the elementary school periods. In regard to the family environment, there was no difference among the three groups in the Subscales of Expressiveness, Independence, Intellectual-cultural orientation, Moral-religious emphasis, Organization, and Control. ‘Cohesion Subscale’ was significantly higher in the normal group than in the JP group. ‘Conflict Subscale’ was significantly higher in the JP and patients groups than in the normal group. ‘Achievement orientation Subscale’ was significantly lower in the JP group than in the patients and normal groups. ‘Activerecreational orientation’ was significantly lower in the normal group than in the JP and patients groups. In gegard to the moral developmental stage, the lower moral developmental step was higher in the JP and patients groups than in the normal group. The higher steps were significantly higher in the normal group than in the JP group. There was no significant correlation between the degree of ‘Moral-religious emphasis Subscale’ and the moral development. The clinical implication and limitation of present study were listed and discussed.