Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue on Child Sexual Abuse, examined through a “person-in-environment” lens, in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a societal concern in which the environment plays a significant role in whether CSA survivors disclose and in what ways, how health and mental health effects manifest, and ways in which survivors are responded to. The venue is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes articles and communications in the interdisciplinary area of environmental health sciences and public health. For detailed information on the journal, we refer you to https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph.

Large scale studies, such as the Adverse Childhood Events Study (ACES) in the US, have raised awareness that traumas in childhood are a more common occurrence than initially thought, and that child sexual abuse is among these. Up to 80% of child sexual abuse is not disclosed or disclosure is delayed for prolonged periods of time. This is largely due to conditions in a child’s environment that may deter CSA disclosures or lay the groundwork for inappropriate responses of disbelief or victim blaming. Subsequently, those suffering from CSA can develop life-altering health and mental effects. While mental health problems stemming from CSA are well documented, negative health effects are often overlooked posing serious issues for survivors over their lifetime.

The focus of this Special Issue on Child Sexual Abuse will be taken from a social-ecological “person-in-environment” perspective to aid helping professionals, and society on the whole, understand the profound impact of sexual abuse, and areas for enhancing environments to promote disclosures, supportive responses and foster physical and mental well-being in the aftermath of this childhood adversity. Creating trauma-informed environments is one approach being suggested by experts and warrants further examination in responding to the trauma of child sexual abuse.

This Special Issue is open to submissions on: 1) examination of the environmental influences on child sexual abuse disclosure; 2) new research findings about health and mental health effects of child sexual abuse and; 3) exploring how environments can be enhanced to respond to and promote well-being in the aftermath of CSA. Manuscripts that integrate a trauma-informed framework and ways in which trauma-informed environments can help to increase disclosures, reduce negative effects and promote responses that enhance well-being are encouraged.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Person–in-environment
• Social-ecological perspectives
• Child sexual abuse
• Disclosure of child sexual abuse
• Child sexual abuse effects
• Child sexual abuse responses
• Trauma-informed environments
• Quality of life
• Well-being