The lifetime prevalence of child sexual abuse assessed in young adults in Lithuania.

OBJECTIVE

We examined the prevalence of different types of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in Lithuania focusing on how these experiences were related to victim's age and relationship to the perpetrator.

METHODS

The participants came from a representative household survey of youth aged 18-29 and the sample consisted of 2000 participants (47.7 % women) with a mean age of 23.9 years (SD = 3.6). The ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool Retrospective version (ICAST-R, Dunne et al., 2009) for young adults was used to investigate childhood exposure to CSA. Both current sociodemographic information and information on circumstances during childhood (e.g., number of siblings, family members with whom the participant lived between 7 and 12 year of age) were collected.

RESULTS

The prevalence of any CSA experience before the age of 18 was 15.9 %, with higher rates for women (13.5 % and 18.5 % for men and women, respectively). Being spoken to in a sexual way or sexual things being written about the person was the most prevalent form of CSA. In contrast, number of victims that reported sexual intercourse was much lower. The most common type of perpetrator was another young person. Intrafamilial CSA was rare with higher risk in step-relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study provides representative prevalence estimates of the CSA in a region for which such estimates were not previously available. These Lithuanian estimates correspond well with previous literature. Importantly, the findings point to peers being an important perpetrator group in CSA cases. This and other findings can inform the planning of relevant policy measures and actions to both prevent CSA and investigate cases effectively.