1. Neuroticism as a risk factor for child abuse in victims of childhood sexual abuse
- Author
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Timm Rosburg, Nathalie Schwab, Coralie Boillat, Matthias Stutz, Marlon O. Pflueger, and Marc Graf
- Subjects
Child abuse ,Adult ,Male ,050103 clinical psychology ,Adolescent ,Personality Inventory ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Developmental psychology ,Young Adult ,Risk Factors ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,Erotica ,Personality ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Psychological abuse ,Child ,media_common ,Neuroticism ,Internet ,Adult Survivors of Child Abuse ,05 social sciences ,Child Abuse, Sexual ,Middle Aged ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Sexual abuse ,Child sexual abuse ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,Domestic violence ,Female ,Personality Assessment Inventory ,Psychology ,050104 developmental & child psychology - Abstract
Findings on the relationship of experienced sexual abuse and abuse behavior in adulthood are ambiguous. However, associations between experienced abuse and neuroticism as well as between neuroticism and active child abuse have been reported repeatedly. In our study, we compared pedosexual child abusers with consumers of internet child pornography and control subjects with adult-sexual preference with regard to traumatic childhood experience (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, CTQ), personality traits (NEO - Personality Inventory - Revised, NEO-PI-R), and sexual abnormalities (Multiphasic Sex Inventory, MSI). In an initial analysis, sexual abuse experienced in childhood was not directly linked to sexual abuse behavior in adulthood. However, this relationship was mediated by neuroticism. In a second step, the CTQ scales were conflated and, using a structural equation model, direct links between the overall level of abuse experienced in childhood (generally high CTQ levels) and sexual abuse behavior in adulthood revealed again the mediation by neurotic personality. We conclude that the overall level of abuse experienced in childhood in general, and less sexual abuse experience in particular, modulates the tendency for child sexual abuse behavior in adulthood. Data suggest that, depending on the resilience of an individual, abuse experience during childhood increases the likelihood of developing neurotic personality traits in later life, which are in turn considered to increase the risk of child sexual abuse in child sex offenders.
- Published
- 2016