A retrospective survey of childhood sexual experiences were conducted in order to determine the long-range consequences for adult funtioning. The sample included 501 women, primarily middle-class. No clinical or offender populations were sampled. Half of the women were undergraduate (34 percent) and graduate (16 percent) students, the mean age was 28 years, 63 percent of the sample was white and 35 percent was black. / There were 55 percent of the sample who reported having sexual experiences before they were 15 years of age. The sexual behaviors reported most often were kissing and hugging in a sexual way and exhibition. There were 24 percent who reported sexual experiences with relatives. However, only 0.6 percent had "incestuous" experiences when Webster's Dictionary (1978) definition of incest is used. Findings challenge beliefs that blacks are more sexually active than whites, and that the prevalence of sexual experiences is increasing and beginning at an earlier age. Most women reported the experience as pleasant, and participation was 67 percent voluntary. Abusive experiences were reported by 10 percent of the sample, and harmful experiences by 16 percent. Experiences with older partners (at least five years) were reported by 13 percent of the sample. Also, 24 percent of the variance in voluntary participation, and 21 percent of the variance in abusive, harmful and forced experiences were explained by older partners. / Five standardized scales were used as dependent variables to measure the consequences of childhood sexual experiences for present adult functioning in the areas of self-esteem, depression, marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction and family relations. In analyses of variance, the scores of women with childhood sexual experiences were not significantly different from those of women with no sexual experiences. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that sexual experiences that were abusive, forced, guilt-producing, harmful or pressured interacting with the type partner (parents, other relatives, or non-relatives) had more consequences for adult functioning than the type partner, conditions of and reactions to the experience had alone, and were statistically significant for all five measures of adult functioning. However, when the effects of background variables were held constant, the amounts of variance explained by any of the sets of variables were less than 12.5 percent. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-06, Section: A, page: 2104. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74842 |
| Contributors | KILPATRICK, ALLIE CALLAWAY., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 236 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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