Incidence, Consequences, and Mediators of Childhood Sexual Abuse in Community College Students
This paper is based on the 2022 Southwestern Psychological Association convention talk, Incidence, Consequences, and Mediators of Childhood Sexual Abuse in Community College Students, presented by Ginger Smith (Northwest Vista College), Sember Lucas (Texas Tech University), and Don Lucas (Northwest Vista College).
Who do you think is most likely to be sexually assaulted in the United States today?
Most people think the answer to this question is women. This answer is incorrect. Although women are far more likely to be sexually assaulted than men are — about six times more likely — they are nowhere as likely to be sexually assaulted as children are.
Children are by far the most likely victims of sexual assault, with nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults–including assaults on adults, occurring to children 17 years of age and under.
Childhood Sexual Abuse: Incidence
Incidence rates of childhood sexual abuse are difficult to determine because of two reasons:
1. Childhood sexual abuse is often not reported — and when it is reported, it is often reported months if not even years after the incident.
2. Childhood sexual abuse is not uniformly defined.
Even with these two difficulties, most experts agree the incidence of childhood sexual abuse is far greater than what is reported.
Whatever the incidence rates of childhood sexual abuse may be — without controversy, we can say the incidence rates are at epidemic proportions. And after experiencing COVID in one way or the other — we all know what epidemic proportions look-like.
To fully appreciate the incidence of childhood sexual abuse, look at the incidence of childhood hospitalizations because of COVID and the incidence of childhood cancer, in comparison to the incidence of childhood sexual abuse:
About 0.3 to 1.4 children for every 100,000 children have been hospitalized because of COVID and about 15.3 to 19.1 children for every 100,000 children have been diagnosed with cancer, whereas about 5,000 to 25,000 children for every 100,000 children have been sexually abused.
Let the comparisons of these incidences sink in for a moment
Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Definition
What exactly is childhood sexual abuse? As previously mentioned, dependent on the source, childhood sexual abuse has different definitions. For example, the following are the definitions of childhood sexual abuse from the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, respectively.
Generally, definitional differences are about defining what sex is, and what age — developmentally speaking — consent is possible.
The study described in this paper operationally defined childhood sexual abuse as:
A self-defined sexual experience with another person that occurred from birth to 17 years of age, in which — the sexual experience was not agreed upon or the sexual experience was forced oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse; or the other person was five years or more older or the other person was a caregiver.
Childhood Sexual Abuse: Risk Factors
Research has found a variety of risk factors associated with childhood sexual abuse; that is, factors associated with putting a child in a situation in which they are more likely to be sexually abused.
Some of these risk factors include being female — however, there are exceptions to this in developing countries where males are more likely to be sexually abused in childhood. Children in foster care, adopted children, stepchildren, physically or mentally handicapped children, and children who are psychologically or cognitively vulnerable are more likely to be sexually abused. Also, poverty, single parent homes, lacking an emotional support network, and having parents with mental illness or alcohol or drug dependency is associated with childhood sexual abuse.
Childhood Sexual Abuse: Consequences
Childhood sexual abuse is traumatic and has significant potential consequences. When comparing children who have been sexually abused to children who have not been sexually abused, research has found short-term and long-term consequences of childhood sexual abuse.
Short-term consequences include such things as genital bleeding, painful urination, sexually transmitted infections, running away, excessive nightmares, anger issues, and troubles in school.
Whereas long-term consequences include such things as having unhealthy romantic relationships, alcohol and substance abuse problems, mental health issues, hyper sexuality, depression, low self-esteem, and suicide.
Childhood Sexual Abuse: Mediators
What is not as clear in the childhood sexual abuse research literature is whether the consequences of childhood sexual abuse can be mediated? Specifically, what factors — if any, allow for resilience; that is, few or no consequences of childhood sexual abuse occurring?
Research studies have shown mediators related to the sexually abused person’s inner resources, for example, coping skills, interpretation of experiences, and self-esteem; and the sexually abused person’s community resources, for example, church or school; and the sexually abused person’s friendships and family relationships; and abuse-related factors, for example, the older the sexually abused person’s age at the time of the abuse, the lesser the consequences.
Purposes of the Present Study
The purposes of the present study were three-fold:
We wanted to extend what has been already reported in the research literature by measuring the incidence rates of childhood sexual abuse in a population — that to our knowledge, has yet to be reported about: Community college students.
Additionally, we were interested in measuring the consequences associated with childhood sexual abuse in this population.
And we were interested in measuring what may be mediating consequences of childhood sexual abuse in this population.
Participants
The community college we measured was Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, Texas. Northwest Vista College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
Northwest Vista College serves about 16,000 students per semester, of which about 25% of its students are full-time; 54% of its students are women; and about 64% of Northwest Vista College’s students are Hispanic, 22% are White; and 6% are Black.
406 students enrolled as part-time or fulltime students at Northwest Vista College in the Fall of 2021 served as participants in the present study. Participants were 18 years of age or older with a mean age of 24.2 (SD = 7.6) and 75% of them identified as female, 22% as male, and 3% as other.
Procedure
We recruited the 406 students by asking Northwest Vista College professors to share a Qualtrics’ link with their students. Students may have received extra credit for their participation as determined by their professors.
The anonymous Qualtrics’ link led to a digital survey.
As approved by the Institutional Review Board of Northwest Vista College, participants read and signed an informed consent form before completing the survey.
The digital survey was composed of six different types of questions: Demographic, Lie, Reliability, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Consequence, and Mediator questions.
Except for Demographic questions, questions were presented in random order to participants.
Participants took about 23 minutes (Mdn = 23.2) to complete the survey.
The five Demographic questions asked about individual characteristics, like “what’s your current age?”
The five Lie questions confirmed participants were telling the truth when answering survey questions and included questions like “If you found $5 that was not yours, but buried in your backyard, would you turn it into the authorities?”
The 10 Reliability questions were paired questions asking about the same thing in two different ways and confirmed participants were paying attention to all the survey questions, and included question pairs like, “Riding a bike is more fun than roller blading” and “I would rather ride a bike than roller blade.”
The six Childhood Sexual Abuse questions were questions we used to define whether a participant was sexually abused in childhood and included questions like, “Between birth and 17 years of age, did you ever have a sexual experience with someone five years or older than you?”
The 23 Consequence questions asked participants about factors retroactively associated with childhood sexual abuse like, “Have you exchanged sexual acts for drugs?”
The 19 Mediator questions asked participants about factors that potentially decreased consequences of childhood sexual abuse from occurring, like “Between birth and 17 years of age, did you have several friends that you could tell anything to?”
RESULTS
Of the 406 participants who completed the survey, 346 or 85% of them passed the Lie and Reliability test questions and were used for data analyses.
Passing the Lie test required participants to answer four of the five Lie questions correctly; and passing the Reliability test required participants to answer four of the five pairs of Reliability questions in the same manner.
Childhood Sexual Abuse: Incidence
Childhood sexual abuse was determined as occurring if participants answered in the following ways for any of the following six questions:
Did you agree to have your first sexual experience with another person? Answered NO, combined with an age of less than 18 years.
Between birth and 17 years of age, did you ever have a sexual experience with someone five years or older than you? Answered YES.
Between birth and 17 years of age, did you ever have a sexual experience with someone you considered a caregiver? Answered YES.
Have you ever been forced to have oral sex? Answered YES, combined with an age less than 18 years.
Have you ever been forced to have anal sex? Answered YES, combined with an age less than 18 years.
Have you ever been forced to have vaginal sex? Answered YES, combined with an age less than 18 years.
As determined by these six childhood sexual abuse questions, we found 34% of all participants were sexually abused as children; more specifically, 40% of female, 11% of male, and 38% of our participants who identified themselves as non-binary were sexually abused as children.
Childhood Sexual Abuse: Consequences
When comparing those in our sample who were not sexually abused during childhood to those who were sexually abused during childhood, the consequences of childhood sexual abuse were vast.
Independent t-tests revealed those sexually abused in childhood had significantly more childhood nightmares, problems at school, and were more likely to be using alcohol and illicit drugs during their childhoods (ps < .001).
They were five times more likely to have been pressured into having oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse; four times more likely to have been homeless; and three times more likely to have run away from home.
Their parents were significantly more likely to use illicit drugs and be mentally ill; their mothers were more likely to have “played favorites” with their siblings, and they were more likely to have been raised in households with domestic and physical family abuse (ps < .001).
As adults, participants who were sexually abused during childhood, were three times more likely than those not sexually abused during childhood to use tobacco products, have alcohol or substance abuse problems, describe their romantic relationships as being “negative,” and be in violent relationships.
They were twice as likely to attempt suicide and be diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lastly, participants who were sexually abused as children had more than twice as many sexual partners over their lifetimes, a mean of 10.6 (SD = 14.0) when compared to participants not sexually abused as children, who had a mean of 4.7 sexual partners over their lifetimes (SD = 9.7).
Childhood Sexual Abuse: Mediators
Using our sample of participants who were sexually abused during childhood, we statistically tested 19 different potential mediators’ (see Table 1) relationships to 23 different potential consequences (see Table 2) of childhood sexual abuse.
Regression analyses found psychological counseling during childhood (11*), perception of mother’s (9*) and father’s (9*) role in parenting during childhood, perception of family life during childhood (7*), having several family members in which anything could be disclosed during childhood (7*), having several friends in which anything could be disclosed during childhood (7*), and being in the foster care system during childhood (7*) had the greatest number of statistically significant relationships.
(*Number of statistically significant relationships with 23 possible consequences, ps < .05)
The consequences of childhood sexual abuse most likely to be statistically predicted and therefor affected by the 19 potential mediators were: relationship with family during childhood (13**), attempting suicide (7**), perspective on life (7**), forced drug use (6**), and having nightmares during childhood (6**).
(**Number of statistically significant relationships with 19 possible mediators, ps < .05)
DISCUSSION
To our knowledge this is the first study to systematically examine childhood sexual abuse in a community college.
We found 34% of community college students; and 40% of its female, 11% of its male, and 38% of its non-binary students were sexually abused as children.
These percentages are substantially higher than the percentages reported for the general US population, which is typically reported as being between five and 25%.
We found the consequences of childhood sexual abuse for community college students can be vast and may include alcohol and substance abuse problems; having nightmares; having suicidal ideations, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder; being in unfulfilling or violent romantic relationships; having financial problems and being homeless; and having problems in school.
While being sympathetic to the trauma they have suffered; ironically, most people write-off those who have been sexually abused in childhood, as having to “suffer for the rest of their lives.” But is this empirically true?
The present study found this to be empirically false because all the consequences of childhood sexual abuse we measured were mediated by at least one factor.
The factors mediating the most consequences were: psychological counseling, perception of family life, perception of mother’s and father’s role in parenting siblings, having family members in which anything can be disclosed, having friends in which anything can be disclosed, parents’ mental health, being in the foster care system, and being interviewed by Child Protective Services.
And the consequences of childhood sexual abuse most likely to be mediated were the person’s relationship with their family, them attempting suicide, their perspective on life, their forcible use of drugs, and them having nightmares.
The present study’s results must be viewed relative to several limitations of this study.
The first being, how we gathered the participants to be a part of this study. Our sample was a sample of convenience relative to the professors who answered our emails and allowed their students to participate.
The second limitation is because the survey was anonymous, we cannot be 100% sure all the participants were community college students — we had them sign an informed consent form stating this was the case, but there is no way to completely confirm this is the case.
The third limitation is this is a correlational study — although we have shown statistically significant relationships between mediating factors and consequences of childhood sexual abuse, we cannot say these mediating factors are causing the consequences of childhood sexual abuse to disappear.
Lastly, this is the first study of its kind, thus the present results have yet to be replicated.
A Model of Childhood Sexual Abuse Mediators
Bearing our study’s limitations in mind, these data still allow for an empirically based Model of Childhood Sexual Abuse Mediators, that shows how consequences of childhood sexual abuse can be decreased (see Figure).
To end this paper, we give this model to you as a present. This present is best used by practitioners working with clients who have been sexually abused or by those who have been sexually abused themselves — to empirically focus on how and what they are most likely to change relative to childhood sexual abuse.
For example, as Table 3 shows, mother’s education level acts as a mediator for very few consequences — actually only one: forced drug use. Worrying about or focusing on the education level of the mother — or for that matter, the father of the person who was sexually abused in childhood will do little in mediating the potential consequences of childhood sexual abuse. Whereas, making psychological counseling a priority for the person who was sexually abused in childhood will do a lot in mediating the potential consequences of childhood sexual abuse, including: alcohol abuse, childhood alcohol consumption, childhood drug use, forced drug use, indecent exposure, mental diagnosis, nightmares, problems at school, relationships with family, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. This model can also be used to steer the person — who was sexually abused, away from the consequences of childhood sexual abuse least likely to be affected (happiness) and towards the consequences most likely to be affected (relationships with family).
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Ginger Smith is a sophomore psychology major at Northwest Vista College. Sember Lucas is a junior psychology major at Texas Tech University. And Don Lucas is a Professor of Psychology and head of the Psychology Department at Northwest Vista College.
If you are interested in the science of human sexuality, then check out https://humansexuality.medium.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQFQ0vPPNPS-LYhlbKOzpFw/
science social sciences childhood sexual abuse childhood trauma clinical psychology child abuse human sexuality sex education health psychology community college education
