Most adult childhood sexual abuse survivors in counselling and discussed in the
literature are Caucasians of western ethnicity, and most counselling for survivors is based
on western counselling theories. Whether the experience of childhood sexual abuse and
counselling for its after-effects among Caucasian western survivors accurately reflects the
experience of survivors of differing race and/or ethnicity has been little explored. Data
specific to the experience of adult survivors of Asian ethnicity is very limited. To
investigate this underexplored issue, a single revelatory case study was undertaken which
used a phenomenological approach. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews with a female
adult South Asian Ismaili Canadian childhood sexual abuse survivor, and based on
adjunctive sources of evidence, a narrative life history was developed (and validated by the
survivor) which described the survivor's experience of childhood sexual abuse and its
aftermath and the meaning she made of her experience. Upon analysis, it was found that
the survivor's narrative was not only the account of a South Asian woman who had been
sexually abused in childhood, but the account of a woman who had experienced emotional
neglect, physical abuse, and racism. The analysis revealed an overall narrative structure
and a number of themes which indicated that the meaning the survivor made of her
cummulative experiences was to self-identify as a victim and to develop a victim script
which permeated most aspects of her life, which continued into adulthood, and which was
inextricably linked to her identity as an Indian female. This study found that the survivor's
cultural/religious environment seemed to exacerbate her victimization experience and
healing opportunities, while her personal religious beliefs appeared to offer her support.
Both cultural and religious elements influenced the meaning the survivor made of her
experiences.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/4036 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Best, Maxime Pascale Norrys |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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