U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Current Suicidality in College Women and Men

NCJ Number
154469
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1995) Pages: 335-341
Author(s)
D K Peters; L M Range
Date Published
1995
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study compared suicidal behavior and cognitive deterrents to suicide in 266 college students, some of whom had been sexually abused before the age of 12, using both a strict and a liberal definition of sexual abuse.
Abstract
Respondents were 266 introductory psychology students (135 women, 131 men). The sexually-abused-by-adults group (SAA) consisted of 27 women and 10 men who reported unwanted sexual experiences before the age of 12 with someone who was at least 5 years older. The sexually-abused-by-peers group (SAP) consisted of 16 women and 16 men who reported unwanted sexual experiences before the age of 12 only with peers (someone who was less than 5 years older than the respondent). Respondents who had experienced sexual abuse both by adults and peers were included in SAA. The nonabused group (C) consisted of 92 women and 105 men who reported no sexual abuse by adults or peers before the age of 12. Instruments used in the study were the Childhood Sexual Abuse Questionnaire, the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire, and the Reasons for Living Inventory. Both women and men in the SAP and SAA groups were more suicidal as adult college students than were women and men with no such histories. Women reported similar degrees of suicidality as men, but greater survival and coping beliefs and more fear of suicide. Those whose sexual abuse involved touching were more suicidal and felt less able to cope as well as less responsibility for their families than nonabused adults. Implications are that adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse that involved touching are more suicidal and have less cognitive deterrents to suicide than adults who have not, regardless of whether they are men or women or whether they were abused by adults or by peers. 3 tables and 20 references