Women who are sexually abused may be at greater risk for
loneliness and less likely to utilize their social support
system. Data regarding a history of sexual abuse, and network
orientation were gathered from 231 female university students, 24 of
whom indicated a history of abuse, and from 26 female clients at two
treatment centers. Victims of sexual abuse were found to be more
lonely and less likely to utilize their social support system than the
controls. Contrary to expectations, those who were in treatment were
more lonely and less likely to use social support than those not in
treatment. Those in treatment were also victims for a longer period of
time involving more incidents than those not in treatment. One-way
ANOVA's found the treatment group more lonely than the nontreatment
and control groups who did not differ from each other; however, on
network orientation all groups differed from each other in the
expected direction. These findings support reports that victims of
sexual abuse tend to isolate themselves from others.