Gender and the psychological effects of childhood sexual abuse: A replication of Gold, Lucenko, Elhai, Swingle, and Sellers (1999)

Abstract

While childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has been linked to a wide range of subsequent psychological problems in women, relatively few studies have included male CSA survivors; those that have typically have been limited by small sample sizes and/or failing to take into account population-based gender differences in symptom reporting. Gold et al. (1999) is one of the few exceptions. The aim of this study was to replicate, with a larger sample, the Gold et al. (1999) study by comparing levels of psychological distress and symptomatology reported by CSA survivors, adjusting for gender-specific population base rates. The Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) was administered to 282 female and 51 male CSA survivors referred to a Scottish NHS psychotherapy service. SCL-90-R scores were analysed after adjusting for population norms. Male CSA survivors reported significantly higher levels of distress and more anxious and depressive symptoms than female CSA survivors, but only after adjusting for population base rates. Five out of the six significant subscale or summary scores were identical to those found in Gold et al. (1999).