Relationship between childhood sexual abuse and attitudes toward premarital sexual permissiveness among middle school students in Luzhou, China

Sex differences in the association of childhood sexual abuse severity with premarital sex among Chinese college students in Luzhou, China

PURPOSE

The adverse health consequences of premarital sex and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are both global public health problems. Based on a random sample of college students from a Chinese city, this study investigated the relationship between CSA severity and premarital sex among students, focusing on sex differences.

METHODS

A total of 2722 college students from 4 schools in Luzhou were recruited by multistage random sampling. Self-administered questionnaires were used to measure CSA experiences and premarital sex. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to analyse the relationship between CSA and premarital sex.

RESULTS

The prevalence of CSA was 9.39%, and that of mild, moderate and severe CSA was 4.04%, 2.90% and 2.46%, respectively. The premarital sex reporting rate was 22.42%. After adjusting for confounding variables, CSA was positively associated with premarital sex. Notably, a cumulative effect of CSA on premarital sex was observed among students. Further stratification analyses showed that males who experienced CSA had a higher premarital sex rate than females, and this sex difference was also observed among students with different CSA severities.

CONCLUSION

CSA and its severity were associated with premarital sex among college students. Furthermore, this association was stronger for males than females. Therefore, it is important to emphasize CSA prevention, especially for boys. These findings can promote understanding of the effects of CSA on premarital sex, and CSA prevention and intervention strategies should consider CSA severity and sex differences.

Parental abusiveness experienced in childhood and premarital sexual permissiveness during adolescence

Objective

This study compared the experiences of parental abusiveness in childhood and sexual permissiveness in adolescence between adolescents raised by dual parents and those raised by single parents.

Method

The sampling process involved obtaining the sample size (N = 1037) based on statistical power calculations and the resources available, resulting in representativeness. The sampling frame consisted of students from different backgrounds (single-parent and two-parent families). A stratified random sampling helped to enhance the reliability and validity of the findings while minimizing potential biases. An online survey was used to collect data from the sampled students. An independent sample t-test analysis was done by using SPSS software and PROCESS macro of the SPSS to test the hypotheses.

Results

A significant and positive correlation was found between parental abusiveness and sexual permissiveness. There was also a significant mean difference in parental abusiveness experience and sexual permissiveness between adolescents from different family types. In addition, the average sexual permissiveness for males was higher than that of female adolescents from the same type of families.

Conclusion

Childhood life significantly influences adolescents' characters throughout their entire life.