Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Men’s childhood sexual abuse histories by one-parent versus two-parent status of childhood home
  1. William C Holmes
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr W C Holmes
 Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia VA Medical Center; University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 733 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104–6021, USA; holmeswc{at}mail.med.upenn.edu

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate the association between number of parents in the childhood home and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) with adjustment for childhood socioeconomic status (CSES).

Methods: Probability sample of 298, 18–49-year-old men from Philadelphia County, number of parents living in childhood home, socioeconomic data and CSA histories were obtained.

Results: 197 (66%) men participated. 186 (94%) of these lived with at least one parent; 76 (39%) and 110 (56%) lived with one parent versus two parents, respectively. 22 (29%) of 76 and 18 (16%) of 110 reported CSA histories, respectively (OR 2.08, p = 0.04). Two approaches to adjustment for CSES indicated continued association between parent number and CSA (OR 2.38–2.39, p = 0.05–0.07). Parent number was associated with numerous differences in CSA perpetrator characteristics and abuse experiences. Men from one-parent versus two-parent families reported significantly more non-family and female perpetrators (p = 0.03 and 0.01, respectively) and fondling experiences (p = 0.04).

Conclusions: Findings provide additional support for the association between parent number and CSA in boys, suggesting that parent number is not just a proxy for CSES. CSA experiences also differed between one-parent and two-parent homes. Findings generate numerous hypotheses for future study.

  • CSA, childhood sexual abuse
  • CSES, childhood socioeconomic status
  • FPL, federal poverty line
  • SES, socioeconomic status

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Funding: WCH was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (DA015635) and is a recipient of a Research Career Development award from the Health Services Research & Development Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

  • Competing interests: None declared.

Linked Articles

  • In this issue
    Carlos Alvarez-Dardet John R Ashton