The relationship of child sexual abuse and family violence to adult adjustment: Toward an integrated risk‐sequelae model

This study was designed to evaluate the relationship between child sexual abuse (CSA), family violence, and other negative childhood experiences within the home and adult adjustment (TSC‐40 and Rosenberg's Self‐Esteem Scale) in a sample of first‐year female psychology students (n = 199). An experience of CSA was reported by 23.6% of women. Results of a discriminant function analysis revealed that level of family violence, father's traditional family values and mother's and father's sexual punitiveness were the variables that best discriminated between sexually abused and nonabused women. After other differences in family background were accounted for by using hierarchical multiple regression, level of family violence significantly improved the prediction of adult psychological adjustment. Standard multiple regression revealed that characteristics and severity of CSA were not significant predictors of adult adjustment. These results were interpreted as support for the use of an integrated risk‐sequelae model of CSA in evaluating the relationship between CSA and adult adjustment. Within this model, the interrelationships among CSA, violence, and dysfunctional familial environments should be simultaneously assessed.