Differential relationships between childhood and adolescent sexual victimization and cognitive–affective sexual appraisals.

Abstract

The aim of the current study is to examine the potential differential relationships between sexual victimization occurring in different developmental stages (i.e., in childhood, adolescence, or both stages) and cognitive-affective sexual appraisals (i.e., sexual self-schemas, sexual self-esteem, and erotophobia-erotophilia). Method: The sample included 710 college women who completed surveys for course credit. Results: Results indicated that a history of childhood sexual abuse was uniquely related to lower control sexual self-esteem, whereas history of adolescent sexual assault was uniquely related to greater erotophilia and more positive romantic/passionate sexual self-schema, yet lower control, attractiveness, and moral/judgment sexual self-esteem. However, an experience of both childhood sexual abuse and adolescent sexual abuse was not significantly related to any cognitive-affective sexual appraisals. Childhood psychological abuse was also uniquely related to more open/direct sexual self-schema and greater erotophilia, yet lower attractiveness sexual self-esteem. Conclusions: Results suggest that identification of the developmental stage during which sexual abuse is experienced is an important variable to assess for in relation to affective components of sexuality and may have implications for treatment of sexual assault survivors. For example, women with a history of adolescent sexual assault may benefit from acceptance-based techniques focusing on core dimensions of self-esteem related to their sexuality.

Mediators of the Relationship Between Sexual Assault and Sexual Behaviors in College Women

“…Thus, the salience of trauma symptoms assessed in the current study may have decreased across time following the ASA incident. Other symptoms may also be associated with sexual aversion among some women with a history of ASA—and would be consistent with Rellini’s (2008) theoretical model—such as negative alterations in cognition, appraisals about sexual situations (e.g., hypervigilance to risk or pain cues), or coping strategies (e.g., Kelley & Gidycz, 2015).…”

“…Future research should examine these hypothesized mediation models among other diverse groups of women. For example, testing these hypotheses among non-Caucasian women may yield different patterns of relationships, as previous research showed differences between college women who self-identified as Caucasian and non-Caucasian in cognitive and affective aspects of sexuality (e.g., sexual self-esteem; Kelley & Gidycz, 2015), which may affect sexual behavior. In addition, future research should test these hypothesized mediators in women across developmental age groups (e.g., mid-life) as other contextual variables (e.g., marital status, menopause status) may affect sexual behavior.…”

“…Walsh and colleagues (2014) proposed that college students who engage in problematic levels of alcohol use are more likely to attend to the perceived short-term benefits over the consequences of sexual behavior, consistent with alcohol myopia theory. Perhaps this is especially true for women with a history of ASA, who may either be seeking temporary relief from distress stemming from ASA or be attempting to regain control and positive affect related to their sexuality and sexual behavior (e.g., Kelley & Gidycz, 2015). Indeed, George et al (2014) found that alcohol use mediated the relationship between sexual assault and sexual risk taking in a sample of community women.…”

Self esteem levels vs global scores on the Rosenberg self-esteem scale

“…Given the general impact of CSA, its traumatic potential is very high and is often associated with multiple mental health problems ( Almonte et al., 2002 ; Berkowitz, 1998 ; Cortés et al., 2011a , b ; Echeburrúa and Guerricaechevarría, 2000 ; Jumper, 1995 ; Rind et al., 1998 ), relational problems and sexuality disorders ( Briere and Elliott, 2003 ; Brugger et al., 2006 ; Houck et al., 2010 ; Kelley and Gydycz, 2015 ; Lemieux and Byers, 2008 ); and low self-esteem ( Cantón and Cortés, 2000 ; Chu et al., 1999 ; Cantón and Justicia, 2008 ; Echeburúa and de Corral, 2006 ; Lamoureux et al., 2012 ; Roberts, O'Connor, Dunn & Golding, 2004 ).…”

Adaptation and Validation of the Brief Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS) in a Colombian Sample and Factorial Equivalence with the Spanish Version

“…Accordingly, erotophobia—erotophilia relationships with a wide range of other sexual affective-cognitive appraisal have been observed, i.e. some aspects of the self [ 12 ], sexual cognitions [ 13 , 14 ], seeking of sexual sensations [ 15 , 16 ] and sexual fantasies [ 6 , 17 ] among others. Finally, erotophobia—erotophilia relationship with other constructs of great importance for sexual health such as sexual arousal / inhibition [ 16 , 18 ], sexual assertiveness [ 8 ], body image [ 19 ] and sexual compulsions [ 18 ] have also been observed.…”