Sexual well-being of sexual minority women in dating relationships who have experienced childhood sexual abuse and/or adolescent and adult sexual victimization

Abstract

Few studies have examined the sexual sequelae of child sexual abuse (CSA) for sexual minority women (SMW), particularly SMW in dating relationships. We examined the impact of CSA on several aspects of sexual well-being. Participants were 299 SMW in a non-cohabiting dating relationship who completed an online survey that assessed CSA, adolescent and adult sexual victimization (AASV) and their behavioural, motivational, and cognitive-affective sexual responses. Four groups were formed based on sexual abuse experiences before the age of 14: No lifetime sexual abuse (NSA Group); AASV only (AASV Group); CSA limited to fondling (CSAfon Group); and, CSA involving attempted/completed vaginal, oral and/or anal penetration (CSApen Group). Women in the CSAfon and CSApen groups were significantly more likely to report having experienced AASV (77% and 56%, respectively) than were women in the AASV and NSA groups (32%). Women in the CSApen Group reported significantly lower sexual desire and sexual satisfaction, and more frequent negative automatic sexual thoughts than women in the other groups but no differences in their frequency of sexual behaviours, sexual duration, sexual esteem, or sexual anxiety. The AASV Group did not differ from the NSA Group on any of the sexual well-being variables. Overall, women in all four groups generally reported positive sexual well-being. These results suggest CSA involving attempted/completed penetration with or without subsequent AASV negatively affects only some aspects of SMW's sexual well-being. They also suggest SMW who have experienced sexual abuse can and do enjoy healthy sexual well-being within the context of a dating relationship.

A Rapid Review of Sexual Wellbeing Definitions and Measures: Should We Now Include Sexual Wellbeing Freedom?

“…Only 10 papers, from our included 162, offered a definition of sexual wellbeing (Contreras, Lillo, & Vera-Villarroel, 2016;Crump & Byers, 2017;Foster & Byers, 2013Frost, McClelland, & Maitland, & Milhausen, 2010;Pearlman-Avnion, Cohen, & Eldan, 2017;Stephenson & Meston, 2015), although some of these were not explicitly stated, in that the authors did not necessarily use specific language such as "our definition" or "we operationalised sexual wellbeing as..". Five of these definitions referred to the individual cognitive-affect domain only (sexual satisfaction, sexual anxiety, sexual self-esteem) (Crump & Byers, 2017;Foster & Byers, 2013Kaestle & Evans, 2017;Muise et al, 2010). For example, one definition was given as "subjective sexual well-being was defined as the cognitive and affective evaluation of oneself as a sexual being" (Muise et al, 2010, p. 917).…”

“…Although the WHO offered a definition of sexual health, it takes us into wellbeing territory with its inclusion of living a life free from discrimination and violence, and with opportunities for pleasure (World Health Organization, 2006), and subjective wellbeing territory when asking people to evaluate their own lives. Of all 162 included papers, 16 assessed violence, such as domestic abuse or childhood sexual abuse, revealing the impact such experience(s) have upon adult sexual wellbeing (Barnum & Perrone-McGovern, 2017;Brüne, O, Schojai, Decker, & Edel, 2017;Crump & Byers, 2017;de Visser et al, 2007;Glenn & Byers, 2009;Gupta et al, 2008;Hellemans et al, 2015;Lacelle, Hebert, Lavoie, Vitaro, & Tremblay, 2012;Lemieux & Byers, 2008;Lorenz, Harte, & Meston, 2015;Luo et al, 2008;Menger et al, 2015;Parish, Luo, Laumann, Kew, & Yu, 2007;Sigurdardottir, Halldorsdottir, & Bender, 2014;Smylie et al, 2013;Wyatt et al, 2017). Of these, half (n = 8) explicitly sampled women, or included a mixed sample consisting of both men and women, with experience(s) of sexual abuse or partner violence (Barnum & Perrone-McGovern, 2017;Brüne et al, 2017;Crump & Byers, 2017;de Visser et al, 2007;Glenn & Byers, 2009;Lorenz et al, 2015;Sigurdardottir et al, 2014;Wyatt et al, 2017).…”

Health Outcomes of Sexual Minority Women Who Have Experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Scoping Review

“…Two of the studies employed mixed methods and the remainder used solely quantitative methods. Most ( n = 39) studies were conducted in the U.S. Three studies were conducted outside of the U.S., one included participants from both the U.S. and Canada (Crump & Byers, 2017), another was based exclusively in Canada (Persson et al, 2015), and the third in Australia (Zietsch et al, 2012).…”

“…Hughes et al, 2010a; T. L. Hughes et al, 2010b; Katz-Wise et al, 2014; Lehavot & Simpson, 2014; McCabe et al, 2020a; Persson et al, 2015; Sigurvinsdottir & Ullman, 2016; Wilsnack et al, 2008; Wright, 2018), and four studies used Self-Medication Hypothesis (Gilmore et al, 2014; Johnson et al, 2013; Lehavot et al, 2014; Talley et al, 2016). The following theories or frameworks were each used in one study: Emotional Processing Theory (Gold et al, 2011), the Traumagenic Dynamics Model (Crump & Byers, 2017), traumatic sexualization (Robohm et al, 2003), which is part of the Traumagenic Dynamics model, the Social Norms Approach to Drinking (Gilmore et al, 2014), Intersectionality Theory (Greene et al, 2019), common cause explanations (Zietsch et al, 2012), protective measures theory (Smith et al, 2010), life course (Reisner et al, 2013), and socialization and human capital formulations of financial earnings (Hyman, 2000). However, 15 of the included studies did not explicitly mention a theoretical framework (Aaron & Hughes, 2007; Andersen et al, 2014; Andrés-Hyman et al, 2004; Austin et al, 2008b; Han et al, 2013; Hughes et al, 2007; Lehavot & Simoni, 2011; Matthews et al, 2002, 2013; Morris & Balsam, 2003; Roberts et al, 2005; Sweet & Welles, 2012; Sweet et al, 2013; Yuan et al, 2014).…”

“…Two of the studies employed mixed methods and the remainder used solely quantitative methods. Most (n = 39) studies were conducted in the U.S. Three studies were conducted outside of the U.S., one included participants from both the U.S. and Canada (Crump & Byers, 2017), another was based exclusively in Canada (Persson et al, 2015), and the third in Australia (Zietsch et al, 2012). Some studies used validated scales to measure exposure to ACEs; five used batteries of questions from Wyatt's (1985) revised Wyatt Sex History Questionnaire (Aaron & Hughes, 2007;Hughes et al, 2001Hughes et al, , 2007Hughes et al, , 2010bWilsnack et al, 2008), four used Bernstein and colleagues (1998) full or shortened Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Katz-Wise et al, 2014;Yuan et al, 2014), one study used CSA questions from Long (1999)'s Life Experiences Questionnaire (Gold et al, 2011), another used Kubany et al's (2000) Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (Gilmore et al, 2014), one used the Conflict Tactics Scale developed by Strauss (1990) (Drabble et al, 2013), and another Koss and Gidycz's (1985) Sexual Experiences Survey (Sigurvinsdottir & Ullman, 2016).…”