Childhood Sexual Abuse, Sexual Behavior, and Revictimization in Adolescence and Youth: A Mini Review

Abstract

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is considered as an activity aimed at providing sexual pleasure, stimulation, or sexual gratification to an adult who uses a minor for this purpose, taking advantage of the situation of superiority. CSA can have devastating consequences for the child. Previous studies have concluded that those who suffer an episode of CSA perform more risky sexual behaviors and are more likely to experience further episodes of sexual victimization during adolescence and early youth. There are two theoretical contributions that, although they offer partial views, can help to understand the association between CSA, sexual behavior, and revictimization in adulthood: the traumagenic dynamics model and the information-motivation-behavioral skills model. This short review provides an overview of the problems and theoretical explanations that have been presented up to the present, underlining the importance of prevention and sex education as of childhood, as well as the need to continue investigating in order to develop specific theoretical models that help to understand and prevent CSA and its consequences.

Gender-Related Differences in Associations Between Sexual Abuse and Hypersexuality

“…13 According to the traumagenic dynamics model, 14 sexual abuse survivors may develop problematic "sexual scripts" that shape their beliefs and guide their decisions regarding sexual behaviors. 15 Attachment theories posit that individuals develop internal working models from their early experience with caretakers influencing their self-concept and subsequent sexual behaviors. 16 Other theorists have suggested that child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors may use sex as a means of attempting to take back control lost in childhood.…”

Perceptions of Sexual Abuse in Sport: A Qualitative Study in the Portuguese Sports Community

“…Considered a public health problem worldwide, due to its devasting consequences on children and adolescents (Homma et al, 2012 ; Castro et al, 2019 ), sexual abuse is still a taboo (Monteiro and Moleiro, 2021 ) in many communities. Several cases in sports settings have come to light in recent years, suggesting a greater incidence of abuse in sport than what is publicly known and acknowledged, which, in turn, highlighted the need to address this issue urgently (United Nations Office on Drugs Crime, 2021 ).…”

Sexual Revictimization: Reflections from Contemporary Feminism

“…This also exposes the fact that women are more likely to experience sexual revictimization in adulthood. Thus, it is evident that women who have been sexually abused as children exhibit a three to five times greater risk of revictimization than those who have been sexually assaulted 3 Sexual Revictimization: Reflections from Contemporary Feminism only as adults (Castro et al, 2019). However, there is still little or limited evidence to examine more rigorously certain factors that also contribute to the emergence of sexual and non-sexual dynamics linked to revictimization (Papalia, Mann, & Ogloff, 2021).…”