University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
J Interpers Violence. 2024 Jul;39(13-14):2981-2996. doi: 10.1177/08862605231225524. Epub 2024 Jan 28.
In contrast to adults, there is considerably less research on childhood or adolescent exposure to sexual harassment (CAESH), its lasting psychological correlates, and whether such experiences should be included in definitions of childhood sexual abuse. The current study examined the prevalence and symptomatic sequels of unwanted flirting, being "checked out" sexually, unwanted sexual attention, sexual comments, propositions, and related noncontact behaviors that occurred before age 18, as well as the multivariate relationship between CAESH and contact child sexual abuse (C-CSA) in a diverse online sample of 528 individuals. CAESH was very common, with over 95% of women and 64% of men reporting at least one experience of noncontact sexual harassment before age 18. When childhood sexual abuse was operationalized as the presence of either C-CSA or a total CAESH score of 18 or higher (corresponding to an average score of "3-5 times" prior to age 18), the prevalence was 67% for women and 26% for men, more than three times higher than C-CSA alone. This expanded definition was associated with significantly more anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress relative to C-CSA alone. These results suggest that CAESH is a significant source of symptoms in adults and support the emerging perspective that childhood sexual abuse may be best understood as including both contact and noncontact events.
相比成年人，针对儿童或青少年遭受性骚扰（CAESH）、其长期心理后果，以及此类经历是否应纳入儿童性虐待定义的研究要少得多。本研究在一个多样化的在线样本中，对 528 个人进行了调查，以了解 18 岁之前发生的不受欢迎的调情、被“性关注”、不受欢迎的性关注、性评论、提议和相关非接触行为的流行率和症状后果，以及 CAESH 与接触性儿童性虐待（C-CSA）之间的多变量关系。CAESH 非常普遍，超过 95%的女性和 64%的男性报告在 18 岁之前至少有过一次非接触性性骚扰经历。当将儿童性虐待定义为存在 C-CSA 或 CAESH 总分达到 18 或更高（相当于 18 岁之前“3-5 次”的平均得分）时，女性的患病率为 67%，男性为 26%，比单纯的 C-CSA 高三倍多。这一扩展定义与单纯的 C-CSA 相比，与更多的焦虑、抑郁和创伤后应激有关。这些结果表明，CAESH 是成年人出现症状的一个重要来源，并支持了一种新兴观点，即儿童性虐待可能最好被理解为包括接触性和非接触性事件。
