The relationship of childhood sexual abuse with later psychological and sexual adjustment in a sample of college women

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship of childhood sexual abuse with later psychological and sexual adjustment. Subjects were 383 female college students recruited from undergraduate psychology classes. Each was asked to complete a packet which contained a victimization questionnaire as well as measures of adjustment. A number of small, but significant, relationships were found between a history of childhood sexual abuse and measures of later psychological and sexual adjustment. In light of the relationship between family background and sexual abuse, however, it was questioned whether these associations were due to the sexual abuse per se, or were due to the confounding of sexual abuse with family background. Indeed, once parental supportiveness was controlled, very few significant relationships emerged. There was a trend, however, for the significant correlations to involve the sexual measures rather than the more general adjustment measures. The implications of the current findings, particularly for future research, were discussed.