Some correlates of women's childhood sexual experiences: A retrospective study

Childhood sexual experiences: Problems and issues in studying long‐range effects

“…Combining the findings across the range of socioeconomic groups may tend to obscure differences in long-range effects. Kilpatrick (1986) found that background variables which included socioeconomic variables explained more variance in adult functioning than did the type of sexual experiences women had as children. Controlling for socioeconomic class or using comparison groups would provide more definitive data on effects which could be attributed to childhood sexual experiences and not the socioeconomic class of the subject.…”

“…Of the studies listed in Table 1, 7 based their findings upon fewer than 10 cases, 15 used fewer than 50 cases, 21 used fewer than 100 cases, and 29 used fewer than 300 cases. Two studies used between 300-500 cases (Gagnon, 1965;Sedney & Brooks, 1984), and 3 studies based their findings on over 500 cases (Fritz et al, 1981;Kilpatrick, 1986;Landis, 1956). All but 2 studies published since 1981 have used over 100 cases.…”

“…The definition of incest in the studies reviewed range from the dictionary definition of incest (Webster's, 1978) as "sexual intercourse between persons too closely related to marry legally" (used by Kilpatrick, 1986), to a definition of incest which includes the behavior of sexual propositioning (used by Finkelhor, 1979), to a definition which includes relatives by marriage as well as by blood (Meiselman, 1978). Thus, definitions vary, both with respect to the behavior and the partner.…”

“…Finkelhor (1979) used three categories: (a) a child 12 or under with an adult 18 or over; (b) a child 12 and under and another person under 18 but at least 5 years older than the child; (c) adolescents 13 to 16 and legally defined adults at least 10 or more years older than the adolescent. Kilpatrick (1986) studied children ages birth through 14 years and defined older partner as persons at least 5 years older than the child.…”

“…They looked at specific sexual behaviors and 18 adult symptoms such as depression, overweight, or trouble sleeping. Kilpatrick (1986) also used well-defined terms, data on specific sexual behaviors, and a comparison group. Her measures of consequences included five standardized scales which measured current adult functioning in the areas of self-esteem, family relationships, depression, marital satisfaction, and sexual satisfaction.…”