secondary victim

This article talks about secondary trauma and secondary victims - i.e. partners and others in relationship with survivors of sexual abuse. It found that couples, in which one or both partners are survivors, reported significantly lower marital satisfaction, higher individual stress symptoms, and lower family cohesion than couples with no abuse history. They found that many of the problems reported by survivors also are reported by their partners, including individual stress symptoms, isolation, poor relationship quality, and reduced intimacy.

Link: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_200004/ai_n8884701

Most therapy methods for sexual abuse survivors exclude partners; this article studied the success of brief couples therapy while the survivor was in recovery, as well as the partner's perspective on the survivor's individual therapy. The 'Results' section of the article has some really good information for partners of sexual abuse survivors.

Link: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_199610/ai_n8752195