To improve teens’ mental health, we must address child sexual abuse

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms something we’ve long known to be true — teen girls are facing a mental health crisis. Many people blame social media. And while it is certainly at fault, social media isn’t the only culprit.

One of the biggest drivers of this crisis is childhood sexual abuse, an under-discussed but tragically common experience for millions of young Americans. Each year, hundreds of thousands of American children are sexually abused. About one in four girls and one in 13 boys experience sexual abuse as a child in the United States.

This problem is also endemic in our region. Earlier this month, five Jehovah’s Witnesses in Pennsylvania were charged with raping and exploiting children. The investigation followed a 2018 Inquirer report that found that Witness leaders have worked to cover up child sexual assaults, and ostracized victims who reported abuse to police.

Unsurprisingly, such an experience has long-lasting impacts on an individual’s well-being. It’s one of the strongest predictors of depression and suicidal ideation later in life.

Women who were sexually abused as children are twice as likely to suffer from depression as those who weren’t sexually abused. Adults of any gender who were sexually abused as children are twice as likely to report attempting suicide. And research shows that the younger a child is when they first experience sexual abuse, the more their risk of suicidal behavior increases later in life. Roughly 62% of child sexual abuse survivors never speak about their abuse.

Adults can watch for grooming tactics that abusers might use to enable sexual abuse. New research shows that survivors of child sexual abuse were more likely to experience an adult discussing sexual experiences with them or isolating them from friends and family than non-survivors. Survivors also report a nonfamily member giving them special rewards or taking them on overnight stays more frequently than non-survivors.

Given the state of teen mental health in the United States, one might think we’d be leading the charge to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse — a key contributor to the crisis. But that isn’t necessarily true. Congress allocated just $2 million for child sexual abuse prevention research in 2022. That’s less than one-tenth of what federal agencies spent on interior design in 2019. Better funding to prevent and respond to this childhood trauma would go a long way toward reducing the share of teens struggling with mental health problems.

The CDC report notes that quality health education in schools can help reduce sexual violence and abuse. But that’s similarly underfunded. Some states have laws requiring education on the signs of child sexual abuse, violence prevention, healthy relationships, or consent for students and school staff. For instance, 38 states have passed Erin’s Law, which requires all state public schools to educate students, caregivers, and personnel about how to recognize signs of sexual abuse.

But the laws often amount to unfunded mandates with varying curricula and degrees of successful implementation across states. While they’re a step in the right direction, laws don’t guarantee that every student and staff member has the tools necessary to prevent and respond to sexual abuse.

The problem isn’t one for lawmakers to solve alone. We all have a role to play as part of an expanded village. Sexual abuse knows no boundaries of race, ethnicity, or class. The insidiousness of childhood sexual abuse can occur at any time throughout the year, requiring that we all be vigilant as part of a child’s village and support system.

At the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance, we serve thousands of child abuse survivors each year. Our organization is the only accredited children’s advocacy center in Philadelphia and provides gold-standard, evidence-based treatments for free.

A key part of our process is ensuring that a child does not have to be traumatized by repeating the story over and over again. Coordination between professionals allows the child to tell their story once, and then a team of culturally sensitive, empathetic, trained professionals steps in.

Data from children’s advocacy centers nationwide show that 75% of children with post-traumatic stress disorder who undergo evidence-based treatments no longer have PTSD by their final follow-up.

Federal and state policymakers must make funding the devastating effects of child abuse a priority. By better preventing and responding to this abuse, we can make sure that children don’t suffer in silence.

Benita Williams is executive director of the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance. Teresa Huizar is CEO of the National Children’s Alliance, America’s largest network of care centers for child abuse victims.