NCJ Number
222034
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 32 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2008 Pages: 83-97
Date Published
January 2008
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study estimated how many heterosexual and gay/bisexual men self-define abusive childhood sexual experiences (CSEs) to be childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and to assess whether CSA self-definition is associated with risky behavioral and psychiatric outcomes in adulthood.
Abstract
This study found that men and women with childhood histories of sexual abuse do not report a childhood sexual abuse (CSA) history when asked in adulthood (Widom and Morris, 1997). Factors for not reporting include: forgetfulness, repressed memories, unwillingness to disclose one’s sensitive history to researchers, and not defining one’s experiences (CSEs) to be CSA. The latter has been a subject of interest particularly for men in whom CSA nonreporting appears more frequent than in women. Participants were 197 men; standard sociodemographic questions (e.g., age, race/ethnicity) were asked in the first interview. Sexual identity was asked more than half-way through the interview. Information about parenting history was obtained using the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). The PBI allows the scoring of two parenting dimensions. First, the care score indicates parental warmth and understanding at one extreme compared with parental rejection and withdrawal at the other. Second, the protection score indicates parental over-control at one extreme and complete autonomy at the other. The Cronbach’s alphas for these dimensions in this sample were .83 and .75 respectively. Childhood socioeconomic status was assessed by asking what the participant’s parents occupations were when growing up. For 43 (22 percent) of the participants with abusive CSEs, 35 percent did not and 65 percent did self-define abusive CSEs to be CSA (“Non-Definers” and “Definer” respectively). Heterosexual and gay/bisexual subgroups’ CSA self-definitions rates did not significantly differ. Tables and references