Aim 1: To identify the immediate, short- and long-term (up to 11 years) mental and physical health characteristics of all recorded victims of childhood physical and sexual abuse, as compared to the general population. We hypothesize, that victims of physical and sexual abuse will have a higher incidence of specific stress-related mental disorders, physical health disorders, suicide attempts, and death by suicide than found in the general population, after adjusting for relevant covariates.
Aim 2: To study whether characteristics of abuse and the family environmental context in which it occurs influence mental and physical health outcomes. We will examine the type of abuse, timing, number og abuse reports, duration and severity og the abusive act(s) as well as aspects of family function (e.g. parental death, parental separation and divorce, domestic violence exposure, parental psychiatric disorder) and perpetrator (related to the victim, living in the victim´s home, single v. multiple).
Aim 3: To characterize physical and sexual abuse victims who did not experience mental or physical disorders by the end of the follow-up as compares to those who experienced these outcomes.