family cohesion

This website targets 'pastors and other religious professionals' with information about abuse, how it affects survivors, and ,notably, how it affects family members and family dynamics. While it is targeted to pastors religious professionals, much of the information is not specific to religion at all. In the Family Member section it has some good information on how spouses of abused persons are affect, and in the Family Dynamics section it talks about three different roles a survivor may take on in the family, and discusses the effects of each of those roles.

Although the journals, books and research cited are a bit dated, this site is a good overview of abuse and how it affects survivors, partners and families.

Link: http://www.recoveryfromabuse.com/wordpress/

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