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The association between childhood maltreatment, psychopathology, and adult sexual victimization in men and women: results from three independent samples

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2015

K. B. Werner ,
V. V. McCutcheon ,
M. Challa ,
A. Agrawal ,
M. T. Lynskey ,
E. Conroy ,
D. J. Statham ,
P. A. F. Madden ,
A. K. Henders  and
A. A. Todorov
...Show all authors
K. B. Werner*
Affiliation:
George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA
V. V. McCutcheon
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
M. Challa
Affiliation:
University of Illinois–Chicago School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA
A. Agrawal
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
M. T. Lynskey
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College, London, UK
E. Conroy
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Research, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia
D. J. Statham
Affiliation:
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
P. A. F. Madden
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
A. K. Henders
Affiliation:
National Drug and Alcohol Research Center, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
A. A. Todorov
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
A. C. Heath
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
L. Degenhardt
Affiliation:
National Drug and Alcohol Research Center, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
N. G. Martin
Affiliation:
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
K. K. Bucholz
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
E. C. Nelson
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
*
* Address for correspondence: K. B. Werner, Ph.D., George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St Louis, 4560 Clayton Ave., 1000 CID; St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. (Email: kbwerner@wustl.edu)
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Abstract

Background

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has consistently been linked with adverse outcomes including substance use disorders and adult sexual revictimization. Adult sexual victimization itself has been linked with psychopathology but has predominately been studied in women. The current investigation examines the impact of CM and co-occurring psychopathology on adult sexual victimization in men and women, replicating findings in three distinct samples.

Method

We investigated the association between continuous CM factor scores and adult sexual victimization in the Childhood Trauma Study (CTS) sample (N = 2564). We also examined the unique relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adult sexual victimization while adjusting for co-occurring substance dependence and psychopathology. We replicated these analyses in two additional samples: the Comorbidity and Trauma Study (CATS; N = 1981) and the Australian Twin-Family Study of Alcohol Use Disorders (OZ-ALC; N = 1537).

Results

Analyses revealed a significant association with CM factor scores and adult sexual victimization for both men and women across all three samples. The CSA factor score was strongly associated with adult sexual victimization after adjusting for substance dependence and psychopathology; higher odds ratios were observed in men (than women) consistently across the three samples.

Conclusions

A continuous measure of CSA is independently associated with adult sexual trauma risk across samples in models that included commonly associated substance dependence and psychopathology as covariates. The strength of the association between this CSA measure and adult sexual victimization is higher in magnitude for men than women, pointing to the need for further investigation of sexual victimization in male community samples.

Keywords

Adult sexual revictimizationchildhood sexual abusechildhood traumapsychopathologysex disparities
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , February 2016 , pp. 563 - 573
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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