[Partnership relations of parents and parent-child relations of physical abuse and sexual abuse experiences in childhood from the viewpoint of young adults. Further results of the Hamburg Study (II)].

616 women and 452 men responded to the extensive questionnaire on body and sexual experiences in childhood of the Hamburg Study. 23% of the women and 4% of the men have been classified as sexually abused, 28% of the women and 14% of the men as physically maltreated. Beside testing group differences, the main purpose of this study was to test, which variables would predict sexual abuse and physical maltreatment in multivariate analysis. In the first part of the study, the relevance of socioeconomic and family factors for the prediction of sexual abuse and physical maltreatment have been presented. In this part, the relevance of the relationship between the parents and of the parent-child relationship are discussed. Multivariate analysis demonstrate the importance to differentiate between the early childhood and the time of elementary school. Especially in the group of sexually abused and physically maltreated children we found a deterioration of the socioeconomic circumstances over time as well as of the quality of the relationship between the parents, both of whom may be related to each other. With regard to the parent-child relationship, the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker 1975) and questions to rewards and punishments were presented. Especially in the groups of sexually abused children, lack of demarcation and intense control were univariate significant. Lack of welfare has been of importance in the multivariate models for the prediction of physical maltreatment. Rewards and appreciations were rare in the groups of physically maltreated children but especially frequent in sexually abused children. The importance of further research on specific problems of sexual abuse and physical maltreatment is discussed.