TY - JOUR PY - 2015// TI - Childhood sexual abuse, attachments in childhood and adulthood, and coercive sexual behaviors in community males: main effects and a moderating function for attachment JO - Sexual abuse: a journal of research and treatment A1 - Langton, Calvin M. A1 - Murad, Zuwaina A1 - Humbert, Bianca SP - 207 EP - 238 VL - 29 IS - 3 N2 - Associations between self-reported coercive sexual behavior against adult females, childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and child-parent attachment styles, as well as attachment with adult romantic partners, were examined among 176 adult community males. Attachment style with each parent and with romantic partners was also investigated as a potential moderator. Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, avoidant attachment with mothers in childhood (and also with fathers, in a second model) accounted for a significant amount of the variance in coercive sexual behavior controlling for scores on anxious ambivalent and disorganized/disoriented attachment scales, as predicted. Similarly, in a third model, avoidance attachment in adulthood was a significant predictor of coercive sexual behavior controlling for scores on the anxiety attachment in adulthood scale. These main effects for avoidant and avoidance attachment were not statistically significant when CSA and control variables (other types of childhood adversity, aggression, antisociality, and response bias) were added in each of the models. But the interaction between scales for CSA and avoidance attachment in adulthood was significant, demonstrating incremental validity in a final step, consistent with a hypothesized moderating function for attachment in adulthood. The correlation between CSA and coercive sexual behavior was.60 for those with the highest third of avoidance attachment scores (i.e., the most insecurely attached on this scale),.24 for those with scores in the middle range on the scale, and.01 for those with the lowest third of avoidance attachment scores (i.e., the most securely attached). Implications for study design and theory were discussed.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1079-0632 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1079063215583853 ID - ref1 ER -