Characteristics predicting children's responses to sexual encounters with other children.

The replies to a survey of more than 1,000 undergraduates concerning childhood sexual encounters are reported. Linear structural equation modeling is employed to analyze which characteristics of the sexual encounters with other children were associated with more positive or negative responses by subjects. Approximately 42% of the subjects reported a childhood sexual encounter with another child. Most encounters involved sexual kissing or exposing of genitalia, and they generally occurred with a friend. High levels of coercion from the other child to gain the subject's cooperation, homosexual encounters, and encounters with those other than friends predicted a more negative response. The type of sexual activity was not associated with response. Subjects who experienced a high level of coercion from another child reacted to their sexual encounter similarly to other subjects who had a sexual encounter with an adult, while those who experienced low levels of coercion rated their encounter with a child more positively.