Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities (regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure of the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, actual sexual contact against a child, physical contact with the child's genitals (except in certain non-sexual contexts such as a medical exam), viewing of the child's genitalia without physical contact (except in nonsexual contexts such as a medical exam), or using a child to produce child pornography.

The effects of child sexual abuse include
  •  Depression
  •  Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Anxiety
  • Propensity to further victimization in adulthood
  • Physical injury to the child among other problems
  • (By a family member is a form of incest) Results in more serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest
  • Results in both short-term and long-term harm, including psychopathology in later life.
Psychological, emotional, physical, and social effects include
  • Depression
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Anxiety
  • Eating disorders
  • Poor self-esteem
  • Dissociative and anxiety disorders
General Psychological Distress and Disorders such as
  • insomnia
  • neurosis
  • chronic pain
  • sexuality behavior
  • school/learning problems
  • behavior problems
  • substance abuse
  • self-destructive behavior
  • animal cruelty
  • crime in adulthood
  • suicide.
A specific characteristic pattern of symptoms has not been identified and there are several hypotheses on the causality of these associations.