NCJ Number
175728
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 22 Issue: 11 Dated: November 1998 Pages: 1119-1133
Date Published
1998
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study examines the relationship of childhood abuse to adult victimization and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Abstract
This study disentangles the separate and combined effects of childhood sexual and physical abuse by comparing groups of women who reported contact childhood sexual abuse only (SA), sequelae of childhood physical abuse only (PA), combined abuse (CA) or no childhood abuse (NA). A sample of 475 female college students completed measures of abuse before and after age 15, PTSD and trauma symptoms, and demographic variables. Twenty-seven were assigned to the SA group, 53 to the PA group, 31 to the CA group, and 211 to the NA group. Members of the CA group had the highest rate of adult sexual and/or physical victimization, followed by the PA group, with lower rates reported by the SA and NA groups. Using adult victimization as a covariate, the CA group had significantly higher rates of PTSD and trauma symptoms compared to the NA group. These results suggest that prior reports of differences in rates of adult victimization and PTSD between women who experienced childhood sexual abuse and women who did not may be attributable to the inclusion of participants with a history of combined childhood sexual and physical abuse in childhood sexual abuse groups. Tables, references