Long-term effects of sexual victimization in childhood: An attributional approach.

Interpersonal functioning among women reporting a history of childhood sexual abuse: empirical findings and methodological issues

“…The second trend across studies was a strong association between early sexual victimization and behavioral indications of diminished sexual satisfaction, in the form of sexual arousal disorders, inhibited orgasm, and coital pain. These findings are consistent with those of several earlier studies also documenting rather pervasive sexual difficulties among adolescent and adult survivors of sexual abuse (Gold, 1986;Maltz & Holman, 1987;Meiselman, 1978;Tsai, Feldman-Summers, & Edgar, 1979). In a rare deviation from this general pattern, one study of 54 women reporting a history of sexual abuse and an equal number of matched controls revealed no group differences with respect to self-reported sexual satisfaction or sexual dysfunction (Greenwald, Leitenberg, Cado, & Tarran, 1990).…”

Adjustment following sexual abuse discovery: The role of shame and attributional style.

“…A pessimistic attributional style (i.e., making internal, stable, global attributions for negative events and external, unstable, specific attributions for positive events) in nonabused samples is related to shame, low self-esteem, and depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, Girgus, & Seligman, 1992;Tangney, Wagner, & Gramzow, 1992). For abused adults and children, a pessimistic attributional style is related to more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem (Gold, 1986;Mannarino & Cohen, 1996). Research also indicates that higher levels of internal attributions for the abuse are related to more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD (Feiring, Taska, & Chen, in press;Spaccarelli & Fuchs, 1997;D.…”

“…Thus, shame may moderate the relation between abuse severity and adjustment such that at higher levels of shame, the association between abuse severity and adjustment is stronger. If CSA is conceptualized as an uncontrollable situation, then learned helplessness theory would suggest that the child's causal attributions will help explain the relation between abuse severity and adjustment (Gold, 1986). The more that negative events are attributed to negative qualities of the self, the stronger will be the relation between abuse severity and poor adjustment.…”

Childhood Psychological Maltreatment and Perception of Self, Others, and Relationships: A Phenomenological Exploration

“…Various forms of childhood maltreatment have been associated with less intimacy in close relationships (Ducharme , Kervarola & Battle 1997), poor interpersonal coping skills including casual sex and avoidance of intimacy (Polusny & Follette, 1995), increase in interpersonal problems and sexual difficulties (Mullen et al, 1996), feeling less secure in intimate relationships and utilising maladaptive conflict resolution skills (Styron & Janoff-Bulman,1997), experiencing a risk of revictimisation including date rape and domestic violence (Briere & Runtz, 1990), increased sexual dysfunction (e.g. Fromuth, 1986), increased risk sexual activities, including increased frequency of sexual encounters, increased number of partners, and decreased use of contraceptives (Gold, 1986;Tsai, Feldman-Summers & Edgar, 1979). These individuals are more likely to have a history of prior divorce, to have never married, to marry younger, to have increased marriage disruption, decreased satisfaction with intimate relationships, to be more withdrawn and lead more isolated lifestyles (Bagley & Ramsay, 1986;Finkelhor, Hotaling, Lewis & Smith, 1989;Mullen, Romans-Clarkson, Walton & Herbison, 1988).…”