NCJ Number
154519
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1995) Pages: 26-42
Date Published
1995
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined the effect of child sexual abuse, defined in three different ways, and three definitions of adult sexual assault on revictimization rates.
Abstract
Child definitions varied in the degree of contact; adult definitions varied in degree of contact and force used. Variables hypothesized to mediate the revictimization rate included parental support, attributional style, coping style, severity of abuse, and involvement in psychotherapy. Subjects were 654 college females. The demographic questionnaire requested information on age, date of birth, ethnic background, marital status, number of siblings, income, education of subject, and education of parents. A modified version of Finkelhor's survey of childhood sexual experiences (CSE) was used to identify women with a history of childhood sexual abuse. The CSE was adapted to obtain information on unwanted sexual experience that occurred after age 15. The short form of the Heterosexual Behavior scale for females assessed noncoercive heterosexual experience (Bentler, 1968). The Parental Support scale assessed parental supportiveness, and the "How I Deal With Things" scale (Burt and Katz, 1987) measured strategies to cope with adult sexual assault; a section of the Attributional Style Questionnaire measured individual difference in causal attributions of negative events. The study found that contact forms of child sexual abuse were associated with significant rates of revictimization, although noncontact child sexual abuse was not associated with revictimization. Revictimized women could not be discriminated from nonrevictimized women on the basis of the proposed mediating variables. Level of adult sexual experience was the best predictor of adult sexual assault. A high level of sexual activity is proposed as the link between child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault. 2 tables and 36 references