Thought you guys might find this article interesting:
"Hormones may usher abused girls into early adulthood."The article talks about a recent study performed at University of Wisconsin-Madison, wherein a group of children - boys and girls, half with abusive pasts - were put into stressful situations (math tests and such) to observe the type of hormones their bodies created.
Stressful situations normally cause the bodies of children and young adults to produce cortisol, a fight-or-flight hormone that preps your body for action. However, in this study, all the girls that came from highly abusive environments produced excessive levels of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone normally associated with sexual behaviors (the "cuddle hormone"), and is normally found during sexual intercourse, childbirth, and pair bonding. None of the other children - even the boys with abusive pasts - produced oxytocin.
Oxytocin is already known to be present when people are anxious (maybe to help cope with situations, I don't know) but the fact that it was only present in girls in this situation is interesting. The article goes on to speculate if it's a form of dysfunction and whether this can help treat young abused girls, as they have a history of having difficulties growing up. (Abusive partners, teen pregnancy, etc.)
All-in-all this made me think of Stockholm Syndrome, tbh.