Introduction: Although society still holds age-related stereotypes dismissing the sexuality of aging individuals, older adults remain sexually active and find sexuality to be an important part of their quality of life. Primarily oriented toward a biomedical and dysfunctional lens, prior research neglected the subjective well-being of elderly individuals, especially partnered adults and couples aged 60 years or more. Shedding a more positive light on this area of life could promote older individuals' and couples' sexual well-being.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is an interpersonal trauma reported by 35% to 40% of individuals in population-based studies in North America. It refers to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as physical and emotional neglect. Although there is a growing body of cross-sectional work focusing on associations between CM and sexual health, most studies have ignored the broader relationship context in which sexuality is experienced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPositive views of adolescents' sexuality have only begun to garner interest in the last two decades. Despite great strides in this emerging area, progress is limited by the paucity of valid and reliable measures among this population. The goal of this study was to validate the widely used adult five-item Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction (GMSEX) in a large sample of sexually active adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is an interpersonal trauma reported by 35% to 40% of individuals in population-based studies in North America. It refers to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as physical and emotional neglect. Although there is a growing body of cross-sectional work focusing on associations between CM and sexual health, most studies have ignored the broader relationship context in which sexuality is experienced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChild sexual abuse (CSA) tends to occur in close relationships and involves sexual acts and betrayal. Thus, it is thought to affect sexual well-being in adulthood more so than any other form of childhood trauma. Research conducted over the last decade resulted in an impressive diversity of evidence reporting that CSA may be related to greater sexual dysfunction and lower sexual satisfaction as an adult, but also to higher levels of sexual compulsivity and sexual risk behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch has revealed a significant prevalence of sexual problems in adulthood among child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors, yet many survivors do not report such difficulties. This study examined the moderator role of relationship satisfaction in the association between CSA and sexual difficulties in adulthood. Questionnaires assessing history of CSA, sexual difficulties, and relationship satisfaction were completed by 320 adults in intimate relationships.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConsidering the long-term deleterious consequences of child maltreatment, it is crucial to better understand the pathways leading to psychological outcomes in emerging adulthood. This study contributes to the existing knowledge through the examination of the role of romantic attachment as a mechanism explaining the association between child maltreatment and psychological adaptation. Prospective and retrospective data from 605 school-based participants (56.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Based on the paucity of self-report measures of disorganized attachment (DA), we developed and tested a scale examining adults' self-reported disorganized verbalizations, cognitions, and behaviors when discussing their childhoods.
Method: The Disorganized Response Scale (DRS) was created and administered to 640 university students, and its associations with variables known to covary with DA, such as childhood maltreatment, insecure attachment, and psychological symptoms, were examined.
Results: Factor analysis of DRS items revealed a single 15-item dimension that reflected participants' self-reported disorganized responses when discussing their childhoods.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health concern. Yet, despite an increasingly extensive literature on interpersonal violence, research on male victims of IPV remains sparse and the associations between different forms of child maltreatment (CM) and IPV victimization and perpetration in men remains unclear. The present meta-analysis evaluated five different forms of CM (sexual, physical, and psychological abuses, neglect, and witnessing IPV) as they predicted sexual, psychological, and physical IPV perpetration and victimization in men.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe relationship between type of trauma exposure, cumulative trauma, peritraumatic distress, and subsequent acute stress disorder (ASD) symptoms was examined prospectively in 96 individuals presenting with acute medical injuries to a Level 1 emergency/trauma department. Common precipitating traumas included motor vehicle-related events, stabbings, shootings, and physical assaults. At 2 to 3 weeks follow-up, 22.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBased on attachment theory, we hypothesized that self-reported childhood experiences of disengaged parenting (DP) would predict adults' psychological symptoms even more than, on average, childhood sexual, physical, or psychological abuse. In a large (N=640) university sample, bootstrapped multiple regression analyses indicated that although various forms of child maltreatment were correlated with symptomatology at the univariate level, DP was the primary multivariate predictor. Structural equation modeling indicated significant direct paths from (a) DP to both nonsexual child maltreatment and sexual abuse, (b) DP and nonsexual child maltreatment to insecure attachment, and (c) sexual abuse and insecure attachment to symptomatology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Patients consulting for sexual difficulties frequently present additional personal or relational disorders and symptoms. This is especially the case when they have experienced cumulative adverse childhood experiences (CACEs), which are associated with symptom complexity. CACEs refer to the extent to which an individual has experienced an accumulation of different types of adverse childhood experiences including sexual, physical, and psychological abuse; neglect; exposure to inter-parental violence; and bullying.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildhood cumulative trauma (CCT) refers to an amalgam of childhood maltreatment experiences that can lead to a range of symptoms and problems in adulthood. The current study examined an integrative model of CCT for its relevance to psychosexual adjustment in adult survivors. A total of 620 participants aged 18 years and over completed a questionnaire assessing early life experiences, affect dysregulation, sexual anxiety, and sexual satisfaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch indicates that child sexual abuse produces lasting alterations in interpersonal relatedness, identity, and affect regulation, often referred to as self-capacity disturbance. Child sexual abuse also has been shown to negatively impact sexual functioning. This study examined the role of altered self-capacities in mediating the relationship between child sexual abuse and sexual responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe empirical literature indicates that childhood emotional abuse (CEA) produces long lasting impairments in interpersonal relatedness and identity, often referred to as self-capacities. CEA has also been shown to negatively impact couple functioning. This study examined the role of identity and interpersonal conflicts in mediating the relationship between CEA and women's report of couple adjustment among 184 French Canadian women from the general population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF