Sexual Self-Schemas of Female Child Sexual Abuse Survivors: Relationships with Risky Sexual Behavior and Sexual Assault in Adolescence

Abstract

Childhood sexual trauma has been demonstrated to increase survivors' risk for engaging in unrestricted sexual behaviors and experiencing adolescent sexual assault. The current study used the sexual self-schema construct to examine cognitive representations of sexuality that might drive these behavioral patterns. In Study 1 (N = 774), we attempted to improve the content validity of the Sexual Self Schema Scale for child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors, introducing a fourth sexual self-schema factor titled the "immoral/irresponsible" factor. In Study 2 (N = 1150), the potential differences in sexual self-views, as assessed by the four sexual self-schema factors, between CSA survivors and non-victims were explored. In addition, Study 2 evaluated how these sexual self-schema differences may contribute to participation in unrestricted sexual behaviors and risk for sexual assault in adolescence. Results indicated that a history of CSA impacted the way women viewed themselves as a sexual person on each of the four factors. CSA survivors were found to view themselves as more open and possessing more immoral/irresponsible cognitions about sexuality as compared to women who did not have a CSA history. In addition, the CSA survivors endorsed less embarrassment and passionate/romantic views of their sexual selves. The interaction of CSA severity and the sexual self-schemas explained variance in adolescent sexual assault experiences above and beyond the severity of CSA history and participation in risky sexual behaviors. The findings suggest that sexual self-views may serve to moderate the relationship between CSA and adolescent sexual assault. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Predicting Risky Sexual Behavior in Emerging Adulthood: Examination of a Moderated Mediation Model Among Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Sexual Assault Victims

“…Scores are summed and can range from 4 to 20 with higher scores reflecting greater use of sex as an affect regulation strategy. Cronbach's alpha among a community recruited sample was .81 (Orcutt et al, 2005), and in this study was .92.…”

“…The 4-item Use of Sex to Reduce Negative Affect scale was administered to assess use of sex as an affect regulation strategy (Cooper, Shapiro, & Powers, 1998;Orcutt et al, 2005). Participants were provided four reasons why they may have engaged in sexual behavior (from kissing and petting to intercourse) and asked to indicate how often they had done so for the listed reason in the last year using a 5-point scale anchored by 1 (almost never/never) to 5 (almost always/ always).…”

“…Supporting this model, prior studies have found that higher levels of depression, PTSD, maladaptive abuse-related coping, and emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between having a CSA history and engaging in sexual risk behavior in adulthood (Green et al, 2005;Merrill, Guimond, Thomsen, & Milner, 2003;Messman-Moore, Walsh, & DiLillo, 2010). More directly addressing the self-medication hypothesis, Orcutt, Cooper, and Garcia (2005) found in a sample of community women that having a history of CSA was associated with greater use of sex as a negative affect regulation strategy, defined as engaging in sexual behavior as a way to cope with negative emotions such as feeling sad or lonely. Further, they found that psychological distress mediated the relationship between CSA and use of sex as a negative affect regulation strategy.…”

Langfristige Folgen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger

“…Najman et al [88] ermittelten in einer großen populationsbasierten studie Zusammenhänge zwischen Missbrauchserfahrungen und verschiedenen sexuellen Funktionsproblemen (im hinblick auf sexuelles interesse, erregung, Orgasmus, schmerzen beim Geschlechtsverkehr). Weitere Merkmale, die mit Missbrauchserfahrungen in Verbindung gebracht werden, sind homosexuelle beziehungen bei Männern [150], hyperund hyposexualität [112] sowie spezifische sexuelle Selbstschematamerkmale bei missbrauchten Frauen, die sich u. a. als weniger verantwortlich und moralisch, weniger leidenschaftlich und romantisch charakterisieren [91]. Noll et al [96] berichten ablehnende und ambivalente haltungen zu sexualität, die in der Gruppe der vom biologischen Vater missbrauchten Frauen stärker waren als bei anderen täter-Opfer-Konstellationen.…”

Sudden Gains During Patient-Directed Expressive Writing Treatment Predicts Depression Reduction in Women with History of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Results from a Randomized Clinical Trial

“…Sexual self-schema guide attitudes and behaviors related to one's sexuality and have been shown to differ in women who do and do not have a history of CSA (Meston et al 2006). Specifically, women with a history of CSA tend to have more negative sexual self-schema (Meston et al 2006; Niehaus et al 2010) which are associated with low self-esteem and viewing the self as immoral or irresponsible (Niehaus et al 2010). Additionally, negative sexual self-schema are associated with poorer functioning in intimate relationships for women with a history of CSA (Cyranowski et al 1999).…”