Citation

Ecott S, Aiolfi I, Ciardha C. J. Sex. Aggress. 2020; 26(2): 151-162.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13552600.2019.1605625

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences have been associated with negative outcomes in adulthood, including sexual offending. Using a cross-sectional design, we investigated whether self-reported adverse childhood experiences related to the perpetration of coercive sexual acts among 250 females recruited from the community. Furthermore, we examined whether sexualised coping mediated any potential relationship between childhood experiences and sexual coercion. A Spearman's rank order correlation revealed no relationship between adverse childhood experiences and sexual coercion. However, adverse childhood experiences were significantly correlated with sexualised coping, which in turn was correlated with sexual coercion. Additionally, there was a significant but small indirect effect of adverse childhood experiences on sexual coercion through sexualised coping.

FINDINGS may help researchers to better understand the causal relationship between childhood experiences, sexual coping, and sexual coercion in females.

Language: en

Keywords

adverse childhood experiences; Female sexual offending; sexual coercion; sexual coping; sexual offending