To examine effects of childhood abuse on adult rape, 1,887 female Navy recruits were surveyed. Overall 35% of recruits had been raped and 57% had experienced childhood physical abuse (CPA) and/or childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Controlling for CPA, rape was significantly (4.8 times) more likely among women who had experienced CSA than among women who had not. In contrast, CPA (controlling for CSA) was unrelated to likelihood of adult rape. Alcohol problems and number of sex partners were examined as mediators. Although both variables predicted rape, their effects were independent of the effects of CSA. Finally, despite ethnic group differences in the prevalence of victimization, the predictors of rape did not differ significantly across ethnic groups.

Female Navy recruits (N = 5,226) completed surveys assessing history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), childhood strategies for coping with CSA, childhood parental support, and current psychological adjustment. Both CSA and parental support independently predicted later adjustment. In analyses examining whether CSA victims' functioning was associated with CSA severity (indexed by 5 variables), parental support (indexed by 3 variables), and coping (constructive, self-destructive, and avoidant), the negative coping variables were the strongest predictors. A structural equation model revealed that the effect of abuse severity on later functioning was partially mediated by coping strategies. However. contrary to predictions, the model revealed that childhood parental support had little direct or indirect impact on adult adjustment.

The authors proposed and tested a model describing distinct pathways through which childhood sexual abuse (CSA) may lead to relatively low or high numbers of sexual partners in adulthood. Path analyses were conducted on survey responses of young female U.S. Navy recruits who reported CSA (N ϭ 547). Use of avoidant strategies to cope with CSA was expected to produce higher levels of sexual problems and fewer heterosexual sex partners, whereas use of self-destructive coping strategies was expected to result in more dysfunctional sexual behavior and more heterosexual sex partners. As predicted, the effect of CSA on number of sex partners was largely mediated by coping strategies and dysfunctional sexual behavior.Child sexual abuse (CSA) has been associated with numerous negative outcomes, including anxiety, depression, suicide attempts, low self-esteem, substance abuse, and problems with trust and intimacy (for reviews, see Beitchman et al., 1992;Browne & Finkelhor, 1986;Green, 1993). One of the most frequently reported findings is that sexually abused women are at increased risk for sexual difficulties ranging from avoidance of sex to compulsive sexual behavior (Browne & Finkelhor, 1986;Green, 1993;Polsuny & Follette, 1995). Finkelhor and Browne (1985) proposed that CSA might produce seemingly opposing outcomes-"aversion to sex" versus "sexual promiscuity"-through the process of traumatic sexualization.Traumatic sexualization refers to the shaping of a child's sexuality in an interpersonally dysfunctional manner, leading to lasting inappropriate associations with sexual activity and arousal. Specifically, if a child experiences high levels of revulsion, fear, anger, or powerlessness during CSA, he or she may be conditioned to associate sex with negative emotions and memories. These negative emotional reactions may subsequently generalize to nonabusive sexual experiences in adulthood, leading to sexual dysfunction, including phobic reactions to sexual intimacy and avoid-ance of sex. In other cases, CSA experiences may teach the child to associate rewards, attention, and affection with engaging in sexual behavior. If this occurs, adults sexually abused as children may use sex to meet nonsexual needs (e.g., seeking love through sex, sexualizing nonsexual relationships, or using sex to manipulate others), and sexual promiscuity may result. Finkelhor and Browne's (1985) conceptualization of traumatic sexualization thus suggests that some adults sexually abused as children will engage in sexual activity with many partners, whereas others will engage in little sexual activity and have few partners.Research on sexual behavior in adults sexually abused as children has generally found that sexually abused respondents have more sex partners than nonabused respondents. This has been documented in clinical populations and populations at high risk of contracting HIV (

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This study explored how specific childhood sexual experiences (CSEs) might be related to selfidentification as a victim of sexual abuse and to gender differences in self-defined victimization. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship of demographic and CSE characteristics with self-definitions. The characteristics most strongly associated were threats-force, incest, and younger age at the time of the experience. Men were less likely than were women to acknowledge abuse and to report CSE characteristics indicative of abuse. Women were more likely to identify themselves as victims the more CSEs they reported involving sexual penetration. Finally, in an analysis of famiHal abuse, men were more likely to define themselves as victims if the perpetrator was also male.Researchers of child sexual abuse have documented numerous long-term correlates, such as anxiety, depression, hypersexuality, low self-esteem, chronic medical complaints, and high revictimization rates (