CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND ADULT SEXUAL REVICTIMIZATION

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... ering of contextual information on victimization events, including the rate of injury and use of medical services.Thus, data from representative samples indicated that women with prior histories of CSA were at least two to three times more likelyto experience sexualassaultasadults. Kilpatrick et al. (1997) reported an odds ratio of nearly 5.0 associated with the likelihood of experi~ encing a new assault during the 2~yearfollow~upperiod among individuals with a history of either physical or sexual assault. College Studies The majority of studies that have examined revictimization have been conducted with college student populations. The reliance on data gathered from college student populations has been criticized in that college students are not believed to be representative of the general population. There is evi~ dence to suggest that college women are twice as likely to report a sexual assault compared with women in the general population (Koss & Dinero, 1989). A number of factors, including increased use of alcohol, a rape~ supportive environment, and lack of parental supervision, have been posited to account for increased vulnerability forsexual assaultamong collegewomen (Warshaw, 1988). In contrast, some researchers propose that college women are less likely to have been revictimized in "adulthood" by virtue of their young age, meaning they have limited time frames in which revictimization may occur. We identified a total of four college studies for inclusion in the present review. The first one, conducted by Gidycz et al. (1993), examined the rates of sexual assault and revictimization using a mixed retrospective and pro~ spective research design. Participants completed a surveythat assessedsexual victimization experiences and psychologicalfunctioning at the beginning of the college quarter and 9 weeks later. CSA included experiences of exhibi~ tionism, fondling, attempted rape, and rape occurring prior to age 14. Adolescent and adult sexual assault focusedon events that occurred since the age of 14. Responses to adult victimization questions were coded as sexual contact, sexual coercion, attempted rape, or rape. Victims were classifiedon the basis of the most severe type of sexual victimization they endorsed. A significant relationship wasfound between CSA and ASA, such that 29.5% of the child rape victims and 32.1% of the child attempted rape vic~ tims were sexually revictimized during the 9~weekassessment interval. Of the women with no history of childhood rape, only 13.6% reported an adult rape. Thus, those with a history of CSA were more than twice as likely to be revictimized. It is important to note that these rates of revictimization reflect events that occurred during a brief 9-week follow-up period. Thus, the incidence of assault may have been higher if assessed over a longer period of time. Results also indicated a significant relationship between child and ado~ lescent victimizations, and between adolescent and adult victimizations. Fur- 56 RICH ET AL.
thermore, women who were victimized in both childhood and adulthood reported significantly more psychologicalsymptoms than nonvictims, child~ hood~only victims, and adulthood~only victims, suggesting that revictimization is associated with cumulative psychological effects. In an extension of this study,Gidyczand colleagues(Gidyczet a1.,1995) surveyed 677 women, using the same research design and survey instruments that were used in the 1993 study. Women were evaluated for sexual victim~ ization history at Time 1.In addition to anxiety and depression, several other potential mediating variables were assessed,such as alcohol use, family ad~ justment, psychological adjustment, interpersonal functioning, and sexual behavior. Three follow~upsessionswere conducted at 3~month, 5-6~month, and 9~month intervals. CSA, adolescent sexual assault, and ASA were divided into five cat~ egories (none, contact, coercion, attempted rape, and penetration) of in~ creasing severity. A significant relationship between a prior histOryof sexual victimization and a recent victimization was indicated during the follow~up period. Women with a prior sexual victimization history were 1.5 to 2 times more likely than nonvictims to report a new victimization. In addition, the severity of prior sexual assaults was strongly associated with the severity of subsequent assaults. Psychological adjustment, interpersonal functioning, number of sexual partners, and alcohol use were found to be mediatOrsof the relationship between CSA and adolescent sexual assault. Howe'-er. none of these mediating variables predicted a future adult victimization. Therefore, acrossall time periods and follow~upperiods, the strongest predictOrof sexual victimization was a previous sexual victimization. Gidycz et a1.'s(1993, 1995) studies are innovative in that the'- used a prospective design, providing information regarding abuse histOlTand psy~ chological functioning prior to a new sexual assault. In addition. the design allowed for the examination of how child and adolescent sexual experiences may psychologically affect women who have recently experienced ASA. In Gidyczet a1.'s(1995) study,resultsdemonstrated a relationship betWeenchild and adolescent victimization and between adolescent and adult victimiza~ tion, but not between child and adult victimizations. Thus. onlv the catego~ ries contiguous by age ranges (most proximal in tenns of age or initial and subsequent victimization) demonstrated the increased riskfor revictimization pattern. These findings are extremely important when considering the dif~ fering cutoff ages across various studies. Weaknesses of the study included limited generalizability associated with a college student sample and retro~ spective reporting of child and adolescent abuse events. In another college sample, Mayall and Gold (1995) explored the rela~ tionship between CSA and ASA and examined the manner in which abuse definitions relate to different outcomes. First, they manipulated the defini~ tions of both CSA and ASA, hypothesizing that more restrictive definitions of child and adult abuse experiences (e.g., requiring physical contact or pen~ CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND ADULT SEXUAL REVICTIMIZATION 57
Page 1 and 2: 2 CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND ADULT SEXU
Page 3 and 4: Vt TABLE 2.1 Assault Characteristic
Page 5 and 6: Therefore, data on the prevalence r
Page 7: symptom measures.A limitation of th
Page 11 and 12: experiences included events that oc
Page 13 and 14: A limitation of this study was that
Page 15 and 16: ered from Caucasian women. Given th
Page 17 and 18: to differbetween White and Blackwom
Page 19 and 20: Calhoun, K. S., Gidycz, C. A., Loh,

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