Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a fairly recent inclusion in the literature as a psychiatric disorder. Currently, researchers are trying to relate PTSD to many different environmental and psychosocial stressors including physical abuse, emotional abuse, war trauma, and sexual abuse. This paper addresses research concerning the relationship between sexual abuse and PTSD. Studies indicate that some persons develop symptoms or characteristics of PTSD as a result of their abuse. While many sexually abused children, adolescents, and adults develop PTSD, others exhibit a range of problems including anxiety, depression, externalizing behavior, as well as an increased quantity of diverse psychiatric and physical problems. Therefore, difficulties remain in predicting which persons will development PTSD and the factors other than sexual abuse that affect the disorder. More studies are needed to assess the importance of these factors (e.g., gender of the abuser, number of abusive events, and support or non-support of family members) in the development of post traumatic stress disorder. Contains 68 references. (Author/JBJ)