Self-reported childhood sexual abuse and attachment in early adulthood among university students.

Worldwide, childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is widespread with severe consequences. We assessed the influence of CSA on insecure attachment in 488 young women in Botswana with no history of CSA, a history of CSA without re-occurrence in adulthood, and a history of CSA with re-occurrence in adulthood. Binary logistic regression analyses were fitted to study differences in anxious and avoidant attachment dimensions. Young women with a history of CSA only and those with a recurrence of sexual abuse in early adulthood had more than three times (OR, 3.34; 95% CI (1.77–6.28) and more than five times (OR, 5.28; 95% CI [1.84–15.12]) the odds of reporting anxious attachment dimension, respectively. Self-reported CSA is common and a risk to attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]