Department of Psychology, Division of Population Health Sciences, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Eur J Public Health. 2011 Feb;21(1):98-103. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckp203. Epub 2010 Jul 15.
Sexual violence is a worldwide problem affecting children and adults. Knowledge of trends in prevalence is essential to inform the design and evaluation of preventive and intervention programmes. We aimed to assess the prevalence of lifetime sexual violence for both sexes and to document the prevalence of adult and child abuse by birth year in the general population.
National cluster-randomized telephone interview study of 3120 adults in Ireland was done.
Child sexual abuse involving physical contact was reported by 20% of women and 16% of men. In adulthood, figures were 20% and 10% for women and men, respectively. Prevalence of any form of sexual violence across the lifespan was 42% (women) and 38% (men). Analysis by year of birth indicated a curvilinear pattern for child sexual abuse with lower prevalence in the oldest and youngest participants. Sexual violence in young adulthood showed a linear pattern with higher prevalence in the youngest participants.
The trend of lower rates of experience of child sexual abuse in younger adults in the sample is in keeping with findings from other countries. The trend of higher rates of adult sexual violence in younger adults is worrying, particularly since the same participants reported less experience of child sexual abuse than the preceding generations. There is a paucity of international data addressing the issue of cohort differences in exposure to sexual violence. Within-study analysis, and follow-up studies designed to maximize replicability, are needed to inform discussion about societal trends in different types of sexual violence.
性暴力是一个全球性问题，影响着儿童和成年人。了解流行趋势的知识对于为预防性暴力和干预计划的设计和评估提供信息至关重要。我们旨在评估终生性暴力在两性中的流行率，并记录一般人群中按出生年份划分的成人和儿童虐待的流行率。
在爱尔兰对 3120 名成年人进行了全国性的集群随机电话访谈研究。
20%的女性和 16%的男性报告曾遭受涉及身体接触的儿童性虐待。在成年后，女性和男性的比例分别为 20%和 10%。一生中任何形式的性暴力的流行率为 42%（女性）和 38%（男性）。按出生年份分析表明，儿童性虐待呈曲线模式，最年长和最年轻的参与者的患病率较低。青年期的性暴力呈线性模式，最年轻的参与者的患病率较高。
样本中年轻成年人经历儿童性虐待的比例较低的趋势与其他国家的发现一致。年轻成年人中成人性暴力的比例较高的趋势令人担忧，尤其是因为同一批参与者报告的儿童性虐待经历比前几代人少。关于性暴力暴露的队列差异问题，国际上缺乏数据。需要进行研究内分析和旨在最大限度提高可复制性的后续研究，以便就不同类型的性暴力在社会中的趋势展开讨论。
