The relationship between childhood sexual abuse and victimization in adulthood was studied using a sample of 548 university women, including 56 who reported childhood incidences of incestuous abuse, 98 who reported sexual abuse by a peer or a nonfamily member, and 394 who reported no childhood sexual abuse experiences. Possible mediating variables of shame and dissociation were investigated. Chi-square analyses showed that there was a statistically significant association between women who were abused in childhood and adult victimization. Logit regression analyses demonstrated that the odds of revictimization in adulthood were greater for women who were abused in childhood than for those who were not abused. Dissociation was not found to be a predictor of adult victimization, whereas shame was found to be a statistically significant predictor.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.