Levine, J. (1996). “A Question of Abuse,” Mother Jones.
What’s wrong with these things? “They make parents nervous,” says Allie Kilpatrick, a social work professor at the University of Georgia who conducted a massive review of the literature on childhood sexual experiences, both wanted and unwanted, and administered her own 33-page questionnaire to 501 Southern women. Most of Kilpatrick’s subjects had kissed and hugged, fondled and masturbated as adolescents, and more than a quarter had had vaginal intercourse. Her conclusion: “The majority of young people who experience some kind of sexual behavior find it pleasurable, without much guilt, and with no harmful consequences.” A similar study of 526 New England undergraduates revealed “no differences…between sibling, nonsibling, and no-[sexual]-experience groups on a variety of adult sexual behavior and sexual adjustment measures.
Rind, Bruce & Tromovitch, Philip (1997). “A meta-analytic review of findings from national samples on psychological correlates of child sexual abuse,” Journal of Sex Research, 34, 237-255.
The self-reported effects data contradict the conclusions or implications presented in previous literature reviews that harmful effects stemming from CSA are pervasive and intense in the population of persons with this experience. Baker and Duncan (1985) found that, although some respondents reported permanent harm stemming from their CSA experiences (4% of males and 13% of females), the overwhelming majority did not (96% of males and 87% of females). Severe or intense harm would be expected to linger into adulthood, but this did not occur for most respondents in this national sample, according to their self-reports, contradicting the conclusion or implication of intense harm stemming from CSA in the typical case. Meta-analyses of CSA-adjustment relations from the five national studies that reported results of adjustment measures revealed a consistent pattern: SA respondents were less well adjusted than control respondents. Importantly, however, the size of this difference (i.e., effect size) was consistently small in the case of both males and females. The unbiased effect size estimate for males and females combined was ru = .08, which indicates that CSA, assuming that it was responsible for the adjustment difference between SA and control respondents, did not produce intense problems on average.
Steever, E. E., Follette, V. M., & Naugle, A. E. (2001). “The correlates of male adults’ perceptions of their early sexual experiences,” Journal of Traumatic Stress, 14(1), 189–204.
Three groups of participants were assessed for this study: (1) men who report no history of childhood sexual experiences or report a history of consensual childhood and adolescent sexual experiences with peers (less than five years age difference; NSA), (2) men who do not identify themselves as survivors of childhood sexual abuse, but report a history of childhood or adolescent (before age eighteen) sexual experiences that were coercive/forced in nature, occurred with an individual at least 5 years older than the subject, or were incestuous in nature (involved an older family member), thus satisfying typical research definitions of child sexual abuse (ESE), and (3) men who report a history of childhood sexual experiences that they label as sexual abuse (CSA). […] Analysis of variance between groups revealed that Group CSA (M = .71, SD = .42) reported significantly more distress than Group NSA (M = .40, SD = .36) or Group ESE did (M = .46, SD = .22). […] Consistent with our hypotheses, participants in Group CSA were twice as likely to have participated in psychotherapy as participants in Group ESE. In fact, more than half of Group CSA reported that they had sought mental health treatment. […] Participants in Group ESE, who by standard research criteria would be classified as “abused” did not seek out mental health counseling to a statistically greater degree than participants in Group NSA. Because the participants in Group ESE did not report higher levels of psychological distress than those in Group NSA, it seems likely that these men did not seek treatment because of lack of distress.
Rind, Bruce (2001). “Gay and Bisexual Adolescent Boys’ Sexual Experiences With Men: An Empirical Examination of Psychological Correlates in a Nonclinical Sample”, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 30(4), 345-368
Over the last quarter century the incest model, with its image of helpless victims exploited and traumatized by powerful perpetrators, has come to dominate perceptions of virtually all forms of adult-minor sex. Thus, even willing sexual relations between gay or bisexual adolescent boys and adult men, which differ from father-daughter incest in many important ways, are generally seen by the lay public and professionals as traumatizing and psychologically injurious. This study assessed this common perception by examining a nonclinical, mostly college sample of gay and bisexual men. Of the 129 men in the study, 26 were identified as having had age-discrepant sexual relations (ADSRs) as adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age with adult males. Men with ADSR experiences were as well adjusted as controls in terms of self-esteem and having achieved a positive sexual identity. Reactions to the ADSRs were predominantly positive, and most ADSRs were willingly engaged in. Younger adolescents were just as willing and reacted at least as positively as older adolescents. Data on sexual identity development indicated that ADSRs played no role in creating same-sex sexual interests, contrary to the “seduction” hypothesis. Findings were inconsistent with the incest model. The incest model has come to act as a procrustean bed, narrowly dictating how adult-minor sexual relations quite different from incest are perceived.
Oellerich, T.D. (1998). “Identifying and Dealing with ‘Child Savers'”, IPT Journal.
Kilpatrick (1992) concluded that early child and adolescent sexual experiences, unless there was force or high pressure involved, had no influence on later adult functioning regardless of the type of partner involved (i.e., relative or non-relative) or the age differences. She reported that, when she discussed her findings with professionals, they closed their ears to them. They were most closed to those findings that indicated positive reactions to these early sexual experiences and to those findings that indicated that incestuous experiences did not cause irreparable harm.
“Long-Range Effects of Child and Adolescent Sexual Experiences Positive Review”, Allie C. Kilpatrick.
This book will be disturbing to many readers. The assumption that all children are “damaged” by their experiences is challenged by Kilpatrick’s finding that 38% of the adult respondents reported the sexual experiences as children to be “pleasant” while only 25% reported them to be “unpleasant.” Kilpatrick also found that, although the majority of the women stated that the experience was initiated by the partner, for many (23% of the children 0-14 years and 39% of adolescents 15-17 years) the women reported having been the initiator. Another surprising finding was that only 4% of the respondents reported that they would have liked to have had counseling.
Kilpatrick’s plea to give truth a chance will probably fall on deaf ears. The “child advocates” who believe adult-child sexual contact is always harmful and destructive will see these findings as distracting society from its mission to protect children. Those who believe that all sexually abused children need psychotherapy to help them cope with the experience are not likely to change their views. The implications of this research simply are counter to our society’s prevailing political ideology.
Obviously, the confusion about the effects of adult-child sexual contact needs to be clarified for everyone concerned and this study provides important information. If a given child is, in fact, not harmed by a sexual experience with an adult, treating the child like a victim and subjecting the child to months of feeling-expressive play therapy is likely to be iatrogenic. Also, attorneys, social workers, and mental health experts would profit from using Kilpatrick’s findings as they apply to various states in judicial proceedings.
This book, which ruptures prevailing myths, should be read by all professionals who deal with child sexual abuse.
Reviewed by LeRoy Schultz, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, West Virginia University.
Child Sexuality Research 