Fabienne Glowacz reminds us, however, that sexual abuse has no social borders and quotes the example of two patients treated within several years of each other, both abused by the same man, who was the successive partner of their respective mothers. The forced sexual relations were accompanied by financial transactions, which established a “prostitution” type of relationship. Despite the same method and the relatively well-off environment, one of the girls became delinquent and the other resilient.  

Aggravated chronicity

Neither the type of abuse, the age, the presence of violence during the acts of rape or fondling, nor the relationship with the abuser seem to play a role in the path taken by the victims. However, the duration of the abuse has an influence: delinquent adolescent girls have been exposed to it longer than the others.

But it is above all the circumstances of revealing the abusive situation that seems to be a determining factor. Fabienne Glowacz and Rachel Buzitu noticed that those who managed to recover from it benefited from greater support from their father (when the latter wasn’t the abuser) compared with the others. An aspect unknown in psychology up until this point since it had mainly focused on the position and support of the mothers. Mothers who don’t always support their daughters through their ordeal. Because they can’t believe that their partners are responsible for such acts, because they believe their child has made it up, provoked them, and they hold them responsible... “Maternal support is extremely important and restorative for adolescent girls and will have an effect on the feeling of guilt and fear of abandonment... But we had forgotten the role of the father, who will be able to help to replace and rehabilitate the role and image of men, offer desexualised affective support, strengthen the bond and hence protect them from a path leading to crime”. In the example Fabienne Glowacz mentions above, this “paternal” parameter was indeed important for the girl who recovered but lacking for the other one, whereas the mothers offered no support in either case.

Mobilising the father

This isn’t the only factor of resilience highlighted by the study. Therapy and the mobilisation of resources outside the family (links with an external adult, a teacher, a friend, etc.) are also essential. But paternal support, whether it occurs immediately after the revelation or later on, is an important avenue to be investigated from a therapeutic point of view. “How can we mobilise these fathers? How can we integrate them into the care process? It isn’t always easy because sometimes, they are pushed out of the family circle when the mother begins a new relationship. And not all of them manage to deal with and understand their child’s distress”, the psychologist points out. Of course, the situation is completely different if the father turns out to be the abuser. “In this case, within the framework of the therapy, it will be important to support the father in recognising his responsibility in order to help his daughter get rid of the considerable feeling of guilt, by allowing her to understand that it’s not her fault...”

The clinician’s challenge will not only be to activate all these sources of support, but also to lead these girls, who usually don’t spontaneously activate the aid system, towards therapy. Because it is too difficult for them to talk about these facts or be confronted with the feeling of guilt and shame that may be eating away at them. “It is up to us to develop intervention strategies with these teenage girls, their mother and father, and create a therapeutic alliance, to support the parents to support their child”, Fabienne Glowacz summarises. So that the future of one in five women isn’t necessarily a wrecked one.