TY - JOUR
T1 - Childhood abuse and sexual risk-taking in women
T2 - The impact of childhood physical abuse and age of sexual initiation on women's maladaptive posttraumatic cognitions
AU - Marshall, Amy D.
AU - Leifker, Feea R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Amy D. Marshall is supported by the National Institutes of Health’s Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program (1 K12 HD055882). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
PY - 2014/2/7
Y1 - 2014/2/7
N2 - Child abuse survivors often exhibit long-standing maladaptive beliefs. Sexual risk-taking could contribute to the maintenance of such beliefs by reinforcing cognitions that originally resulted from child abuse. In this study, 64 community women, most with elevated posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, completed measures of childhood abuse, sexual risk-taking, and posttraumatic cognitions. Age of first consensual sexual intercourse mediated the relationship between childhood physical abuse and maladaptive posttraumatic cognitions in adulthood. Thus, age of sexual intercourse initiation might play an important role in women's recovery from childhood physical abuse. Clinicians should consider the possible impact of women's sexual history when challenging their cognitions during trauma-based cognitive behavioral therapy. Further, decreasing risky sexual behavior might partially protect against the negative effects of trauma.
AB - Child abuse survivors often exhibit long-standing maladaptive beliefs. Sexual risk-taking could contribute to the maintenance of such beliefs by reinforcing cognitions that originally resulted from child abuse. In this study, 64 community women, most with elevated posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, completed measures of childhood abuse, sexual risk-taking, and posttraumatic cognitions. Age of first consensual sexual intercourse mediated the relationship between childhood physical abuse and maladaptive posttraumatic cognitions in adulthood. Thus, age of sexual intercourse initiation might play an important role in women's recovery from childhood physical abuse. Clinicians should consider the possible impact of women's sexual history when challenging their cognitions during trauma-based cognitive behavioral therapy. Further, decreasing risky sexual behavior might partially protect against the negative effects of trauma.
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U2 - 10.1080/10926771.2014.872746
DO - 10.1080/10926771.2014.872746
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84896137226
SN - 1092-6771
VL - 23
SP - 136
EP - 150
JO - Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma
JF - Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma
IS - 2
ER -
