Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada.
Department of Sexology, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Arch Sex Behav. 2019 Oct;48(7):2125-2135. doi: 10.1007/s10508-019-01494-z. Epub 2019 Jul 12.
Sexual self-efficacy-the belief in one's ability to engage in desired and to refuse unwanted, sexual activities and behaviors-is an important feature in promoting adolescent sexual health and well-being. One factor that may affect the development of sexual self-efficacy is child sexual abuse. However, little is known about the processes underlying the relation between child sexual abuse and sexual self-efficacy. Using longitudinal data from a sample of 739 adolescent girls and boys aged between 14 and 18 years, we examined the mediational role of two "silencing the self" attitudes and behaviors in romantic relationships-self-silencing, i.e., inhibiting fulfilling one's own needs, and divided self, i.e., presenting an outer compliant self-in the associations between child sexual abuse severity and two dimensions of sexual self-efficacy: the ability to set clear sexual limits and the ability to use sexual protection. Results of path analysis showed that child sexual abuse severity was associated with more self-silencing and more divided self. In turn, self-silencing was associated with lower protection use self-efficacy, whereas divided self was associated with lower limit-setting and protection use self-efficacy. Thus, self-silencing strategies in romantic relationships mediated the associations between child sexual abuse severity and lower sexual self-efficacy. The overall findings may inform the development of prevention/intervention programs that target the enhancement of an integrated sense of self in intimate relationships to promote assertive strategies in sexual situations.
性自我效能感——即对自己有能力从事期望的和拒绝不期望的性行为和行为的信念——是促进青少年性健康和幸福的一个重要特征。可能影响性自我效能感发展的一个因素是儿童性虐待。然而，对于儿童性虐待与性自我效能感之间关系的潜在过程知之甚少。本研究使用了 739 名年龄在 14 岁至 18 岁之间的青少年女孩和男孩的纵向数据，检验了两种“沉默自我”的态度和行为在浪漫关系中的中介作用——自我压抑，即抑制满足自己的需求，以及分裂自我，即表现出一个外在顺从的自我——在儿童性虐待严重程度与性自我效能感的两个维度（设定明确的性界限的能力和使用性保护的能力）之间的关联。路径分析的结果表明，儿童性虐待的严重程度与更多的自我压抑和更多的分裂自我有关。反过来，自我压抑与较低的保护使用自我效能感有关，而分裂自我与较低的设定界限和保护使用自我效能感有关。因此，浪漫关系中的自我压抑策略中介了儿童性虐待严重程度与较低性自我效能感之间的关联。总的来说，这些发现可能为制定预防/干预计划提供信息，这些计划旨在增强亲密关系中自我的整体性，以促进在性情境中采取果断的策略。
