NCJ Number
144489
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Dated: (July-August 1993) Pages: 539-547
Date Published
1993
Length
9 pages
Annotation
A sample of 657 female and 167 male undergraduates completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge of facts regarding sexual abuse, attitudes and feelings about sexual abuse, and their own experiences with sexual abuse.
Abstract
The results showed that women have stronger beliefs, attitudes, and emotional reactions to the topic of sexual abuse than their male counterparts. In this study, 6 percent of the men and 13 percent of the women reported that they had been sexually abused. The other notable finding was that an equal proportion of males and females had been approached by possible abusers, but had not been sexually molested. The author suggests that the explanation for both phenomenon may lie in the social psychology gender differences literature, which demonstrates that girls are socialized to be warm, nurturing, and expressive, while boys are socialized to be competent, self-sufficient, and nondisclosing. 3 tables and 17 references