Sexual victimization and perceptions of close relationships in adolescence

Intimate Partner Abuse and Attachment: A Comparison Between Abused and Nonabused Women

The purpose of this study was to examine intimate partner abuse (IPA), parental attachment, and romantic attachment among college women. More specifically, IPA was examined such that women who had experienced abuse and those who had not were compared with respect to parental and romantic attachment using the lens of attachment theory. Undergraduate women (N = 502) completed an online survey assessing their experiences of IPA as well as their parental and romantic attachment styles. Bivariate correlations demonstrated that IPA was significantly associated with all study variables (i.e., love withdrawal, care, and overprotection from both mother and father; romantic anxiety) in the hypothesized directions with the exception of romantic avoidance not being associated with abuse. Regarding the comparison of women who had experienced abuse (n = 367) to women who had not experienced abuse (n = 135), one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) revealed significant group mean differences in the hypothesized directions between abused and nonabused women with respect to love withdrawal and overprotection from both mothers and fathers, and romantic anxiety. In addition, psychological IPA and physical IPA were examined separately, yielding additional group differences regarding care from father and care from both mother and father, respectively. This work begins to examine attachment and IPA in new ways because it examines both parental attachment and romantic attachment in relation to IPA.

Impact of sexual coercion on romantic experiences of adolescents and young adults

Little is known about the effect of sexual coercion on romantic relationship quality and dating experiences. The current study aimed to address this dearth in the literature and test the hypothesis that sexual coercion has a negative impact on victims' subsequent romantic experiences. Using a sample of 94 youth (44 males and 50 females), the current study addressed the impact of sexual coercion on romantic relationship quality and dating experiences. Tracking youth for 8.5 years (M age at Wave 1 = 15.10 years, SD = .49), the current study used piecewise growth curve modeling to account for shifts in the intercept and slope of romantic experiences following sexual coercion. Negative interactions immediately increased following coercion and continued to have an accelerated rate of growth (i.e., a slope change). Jealousy in romantic relationships increased in slope. Serious dating decelerated following the coercive incident. Results were largely consistent across gender and severity of the coercive incident. Contrary to hypotheses, relational support, relationship satisfaction, and casual dating did not significantly change following sexual coercion. Consistent with hypotheses, sexual coercion had a negative impact on romantic experiences. These findings have clinical implications for both prevention and intervention around sexual violence. In addition, the consistency of findings across gender and severity suggests that increased focus should be directed toward both male sexual coercion and less severe sexual coercion.

Changes in adolescents' risk factors following peer sexual coercion: evidence for a feedback loop

Investigators have identified a number of factors that increase the risk for experiencing sexual coercion, but as yet little is known about how sexual coercion in turn affects these risk factors. Using a sample of 110 adolescents, the current study examined the hypothesis that, after an incident of sexual coercion, adolescents would exhibit increases in several behaviors known to increase risk for victimization. As predicted, after experiencing sexual coercion, adolescents reported increased externalizing symptoms, more frequent sexual intercourse and a greater total number of intercourse partners. Finally, alcohol use, drug use, and problems related to substance use increased. These findings suggest the presence of a feedback loop, in which the experience of sexual coercion leads to an intensification of the factors that initially contributed risk for coercion.

Young women's accounts of intimate partner violence during adolescence and subsequent recovery processes: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

OBJECTIVE

Previous qualitative research into the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) has largely focused upon mature women's accounts. The objectives of this interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) were to explore three young women's understandings of why they had been vulnerable to IPV in mid-to-late adolescence, their experiences of IPV, and their recovery processes.

DESIGN

This study followed guidelines for IPA, largely focusing upon shared aspects of the experience of IPV as narrated by three young women who considered that they had since recovered from the experience.

METHOD

Semi-structured interviews explored participants' retrospective understandings of how they had become entrapped in a long-term abusive relationship in adolescence, how IPV had affected them at the time, and the processes that they had found helpful to recover well-being.

FINDINGS

Participants largely attributed their vulnerability to IPV to feeling confused about feelings and relationships, disconnected, and powerless in early adolescence. IPV was described as escalating insidiously, rendering participants confined, anxious and powerless, ensnaring them in their partner's family, marginalized in their own families, and undermining their identities. Recovery processes began with pivotal moments. Participants described repairing identity through engaging in age-appropriate activities, extricating self from the partner's family, and rebuilding family relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

Participants described experiences of IPV and recovery in adolescence that differed in some ways from those previously identified in adult women and were interpreted using theories of adolescent identity development and attachment.

A global perspective on child sexual abuse: meta-analysis of prevalence around the world

Our comprehensive meta-analysis combined prevalence figures of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) reported in 217 publications published between 1980 and 2008, including 331 independent samples with a total of 9,911,748 participants. The overall estimated CSA prevalence was 127/1000 in self-report studies and 4/1000 in informant studies. Self-reported CSA was more common among female (180/1000) than among male participants (76/1000). Lowest rates for both girls (113/1000) and boys (41/1000) were found in Asia, and highest rates were found for girls in Australia (215/1000) and for boys in Africa (193/1000). The results of our meta-analysis confirm that CSA is a global problem of considerable extent, but also show that methodological issues drastically influence the self-reported prevalence of CSA.

Dating violence and the health of young women: a feminist narrative study

Dating violence is a significant public health problem in the lives of young women. Their age, in conjunction with perceived pressures to engage in intimate relationships, makes these women particularly vulnerable to dating violence. The pressures to be in relationships can be intense and therefore may add to young women's willingness to overlook, forgive, or excuse the violence that is occurring. The authors' purposes in this feminist study were to examine the experience of dating violence from young women's perspectives; investigate how contextual factors shape their experiences; examine how health is shaped by these experiences; and explore ways that dating violence is perpetuated and normalized in young women's lives. Findings revealed that family environment and gender are critical in shaping young women's experiences. The participants described a range of physical and emotional health problems and perceived few sources of support. Their efforts to obtain support were often met with skeptical and dismissive attitudes on the part of health care providers and other trusted adults. Recommendations for health care practice, education, and research are presented.