Sexual abuse in childhood and sexual dysfunction in adulthood: An Australian population-based study

This study examined self-reported adult sexual functioning in individuals reporting a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in a representative sample of the Australian population. A sample of 1793 persons, aged 18-59 years, were randomly selected from the electoral roll for Australian states and territories in April 2000. Respondents were interviewed about their health status and sexual experiences, including unwanted sexual experiences before the age of 16 years. More than one-third of women and approximately one-sixth of men reported a history of CSA. Women were more likely than men to report both non-penetrative and penetrative experiences of CSA. For both sexes, there was a significant association between CSA and symptoms of sexual dysfunction. In assessing the specific nature of the relationship between sexual abuse and sexual dysfunction, statistically significant associations were, in general, evident for women only. CSA was not associated with the level of physical or emotional satisfaction respondents experienced with their sexual activity. The total number of lifetime sexual partners was significantly and positively associated with CSA for females, but not for males; however, the number of sexual partners in the last year was not related to CSA. CSA in the Australian population is common and contributes to significant impairment in the sexual functioning of adults, especially women. These consequences appear not to extend to the other areas of sexual activity considered in this study.

Toward Prevention of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Preschoolers’ Knowledge of Genital Body Parts

This study examined preschool children’s knowledge of their genital and non-genital body parts. Results indicated that almost all preschool children knew the correct terms for their non-genital body parts, but few knew the correct terminology for their genitals. The importance of this skill in preventing childhood sexual abuse is discussed.

Sexual abuse protest in front of NYC Playboy Club

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Positive mental health in adults reporting sexual abuse in childhood

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a history of child sexual abuse can impact Positive Mental Health in Canadian adults and how frequency of child sexual abuse as well as perceived social support impact Positive Mental Health scores for this population. Data was collected from the Canadian Community Health Survey- Mental Health 2012 and included a sample of 20,529 adults aged 18 and older, living across ten provinces. A one-way ANOVA showed a significant difference between Positive Mental Health scores for individuals reporting a history of child sexual abuse compared to those reporting no history of child sexual abuse. A regression analysis found that reported frequency of child sexual abuse did not significantly impact Positive Mental Health scores for individuals reporting child sexual abuse. It also found that perception of social support was positively related to Positive Mental Health scores and accounted for 25% of the variance in Positive Mental Health scores for individuals reporting child sexual abuse. The implications of these findings are discussed in this study.

Legal disclosure of childhood sexual abuse: what can professionals tell us?

ABSTRACT: Purpose: This study explores how the decision to disclose Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) to the legal setting for adult victims is perceived by key informants, specifically factors that are believed to facilitate or prevent legal disclosure from occurring. Background: Prevalence rates of CSA are high (Pereda, Guilera, Forns & Gomez-Benito, 2009) and the negative consequences caused by the abuse acknowledged (Filipas & Ullman, 2006). Disclosure of this crime is understood to be complex and delayed disclosure recognised (Arata, 1998) but little is known about disclosure to the legal system. Rates of legal disclosure of CSA remain low and the attrition rates high (London, Bruck, Ceci & Shuman, 2005), but investigation and understanding of the contributory factors is rare. Disclosure of CSA to the legal system enables prosecution of the abuser and protection of the victim and others. Method: 10 “key informants” consisting of specialised clinicians working with adult victims of CSA were interviewed. Each informant completed an indepth interview exploring their beliefs about factors that facilitated or prevented adult victims of CSA from disclosing their experience to the legal system. Interviews were transcribed and the qualitative data subjected to Thematic Analysis. Conclusions: Two super-ordinate themes (Legal Disclosures Are Rare: “Why would they do that?” and The Anomalies: Acknowledging that this is a crime) and four sub-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis and an analytical narrative constructed. Themes emphasised the rarity of legal disclosure and the significant number of barriers adult victims of CSA perceive. Implications for clinical practice and future research are outlined.

The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Later Parenting Self-Perceptions: The Moderating Effect of Family Support

Childhood sexual abuse has been found to be a risk factor for developing negative parenting self-perceptions later in life. Given this established relationship, it is crucial to investigate factors that may mitigate negative outcomes, such as family support. The present study used secondary analysis of a dataset of 265 predominantly African-American and low-income mothers. This study examined differences in parenting self-perceptions among mothers who experienced childhood sexual abuse and those who did not. Analyses revealed that mothers who experienced childhood sexual abuse did not differ in terms of parenting self-perceptions from non-sexually-abused mothers. After controlling for depression, there was no moderating effect of family support; however, a main effect for family support was observed. The results indicate that depression plays a larger role in mothers’ parenting self-perceptions than childhood sexual abuse, and that family support is beneficial for all mothers, regardless of sexual abuse status. Clinical implications are discussed.

Blame Attributions Among Child Sexual Abuse Survivors and Disclosure of the Abuse

Child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure is critical for survivor´s psychosocial adjustment later in life. The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between attributions of blame for child sexual abuse by the victim and the disclosure of the abuse to parents or caregivers while controlling for characteristics of the abuse. Female college students between 17 and 24 years of age (M = 19.44, SD = 1.64) from a southern Spanish University were surveyed. Of 1547 respondents, 153 (9.90%) reported having suffered some form of CSA before the age of 15. Information about the characteristics of abuse (age of onset, type of abuse suffered, continuity of abuse, and relationship with and age of the perpetrator) and the existence of abuse disclosure by the survivor was obtained from a self-reported questionnaire developed for the present study. The Attributions of Responsibility and Blame Scale (McMillen & Zuravin, 1997) was used to assess attributions made about CSA (self-blame, perpetrator blame and family blame). The results of a logistic regression model was statistically significant, χ² (9) = 43.856, p < .001. The model explained 41% (Nagelkerke R²) of the variance of abuse disclosure and correctly classified 85.6% of cases. Survivor disclosure was 5.50 times more likely to occur when the perpetrator was not a family member (Wald = 8.14, p < .01) and 3.95 times more likely to occur when there was not physical contact with the perpetrator (Wald = 4.30, p < .05). The occurrence of disclosure was also related to increased perpetrator age (Wald = 4.83, p < .05). With regard to the attributions of blame, the occurrence of disclosure was related to lower scores on self-blame (Wald = 6.78, p < .01) and higher scores on family blame (Wald = 9.67, p < .001). However, no relationship was found between perpetrator blame and disclosure of abuse. The results confirm the idea that not only self-blame attributions, but also family blame attributions are critical to the decision of a CSA victim to disclose abuse. The possibility that children who do not disclose abuse have a greater need to deny the occurrence of abuse, or have more confusion about being abused is discussed. Attributions of blame should be taken into serious consideration when evaluating children for possible sexual abuse.

Predicting childhood sexual or physical abuse: a logistic regression geo-mapping approach to prevention.

This study investigates the degree to which gender, ethnicity, relationship to perpetrator, and geomapped socio-economic factors significantly predict the incidence of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse and non- abuse. These variables are then linked to geographic identifiers using geographic information system (GIS) technology to develop a geo-mapping framework for child sexual and physical abuse prevention.

Intergenerational associations between a consensual childhood sexual experience and adult substance abuse among Latina mothers and daughters

Purpose: Early onset of sexual activity has been linked to later substance abuse. Our study aimed to further describe the associations between Latina mothers’ and daughters’ early sexual activity and adult substance abuse. Methods: A survey was conducted with 92 Latina mother–daughter dyads whose members never experienced sexual abuse. Childhood sexual experience was defined as the occurrence of a consensual sexual encounter at the age of 15 years or younger. Substance abusers were identified by the extent of substance use during the 12 months prior to the interview. Path analysis was used to fit our conceptual models to the data. Main findings: Daughters’ current, adult substance abuse was associated independently with: their own childhood sexual experience (odds ratio [OR] = 6.0) and mothers’ current, adult substance abuse (OR = 2.0). Compared with daughters who first experienced sex after the age of 19, the odds of using substances were 17.7 times higher among daughters who had childhood sexual experience and 3.8 times higher among daughters who first experienced sex between the age of 16–19 years. Explicitly, sexual experiences between the ages of 16–19 years were also risk factors for later adult substance abuse. Mothers’ childhood sexual experience (OR = 7.3) was a strong predictor for daughters’ childhood sexual experience. Conclusions: Our study supported a link between mother and daughter childhood sexual experience among Latinas, and indicated it is a correlate of adult substance abuse. Family based substance abuse prevention efforts and future longitudinal studies should consider maternal childhood sexual experience as a potential indication of risk for Latina daughters.

Abuso sexual na infância e adolescência: perfil das vítimas e agressores em município do sul do Brasil

Estudo descritivo e de corte transversal que objetivou conhecer as características do abuso sexual em crianças e adolescentes de zero a 14 anos, a partir dos casos registrados nos Conselhos Tutelares e programas de atendimento do município de Londrina-PR, em 2006. Os dados foram coletados por meio de formulário e posteriormente analisados por frequência (absoluta e relativa) e proporção. Dos 186 casos, as vítimas foram predominantemente do sexo feminino (74,2%) e o risco de incidência foi maior na idade de 10 anos entre as meninas (coeficiente de cinco por 1.000); 97,3% dos agressores eram do sexo masculino; maior parte dos abusos ocorreu na residência das vítimas (52,7%) e durou menos de seis meses (57%). Houve lesão corporal em 90,3% dos casos, com seqüela física e psicológica em 97,8%. O abuso sexual entre crianças e adolescentes constitui-se um problema de saúde pública, além da estreita interface com as questões policiais e jurídicas.

Disordered eating, weight dissatisfaction and dieting in relation to unwanted childhood sexual experiences in a community sample

A study was conducted to examine the relationships among eating pathology, weight dissatisfaction and dieting, and unwanted sexual experiences in childhood. An unselected community sample of 201 young and 268 middle-aged women were administered questionnaires assessing eating behaviors and attitudes, and past and current sexual abuse. Results showed differential relationships among these factors for the two age cohorts: for young women, past sexual abuse predicted weight dissatisfaction, but not dieting or disordered eating behaviors, whereas for middle-aged women, past abuse was predictive of disordered eating, but not dieting or weight dissatisfaction. Current physical or sexual abuse was also found to be predictive of disordered eating for the young women. These findings underscore the complexity of the relationships among unwanted sexual experiences and eating and weight pathology, and suggest that the timing of sexual abuse, and the age of the woman, are important mediating factors. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.