Sexual Violence First Experienced as Childhood or Adolescent: The Effects on U.S. Female Education and Occupation

Abstract

Previous research generally considers sexual violence as binary, meaning it has been experienced or not, and has yet to identify if the age at which a survivor was first assaulted has differing long-term effects. The primary purpose of this study is to empirically explore the effect of age, specifically the two age ranges of childhood or adolescence, at which sexual violence is first experienced on female survivors’ educational attainment and occupation in the United States (U.S.). Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health survey, the empirical results indicate that study participants who first experience sexual violence in childhood are 50.2% less likely to have attained a level of high school education or above compared to those who did not experience sexual violence in childhood. Further, the analysis results suggest those participants who first experienced sexual violence in adolescence are 41.6% less likely to have attained a level of high school education or above compared to those who did not experience sexual violence in adolescence. In reference to occupation, the analysis results indicate that first experiencing sexual violence as an adolescent makes the odds higher that the survivor will be employed in a lower skill occupation (associate professional) relative to the highest skill occupation (professional). Overall, this study concludes that the age at which a survivor was first assaulted impacts the long-term effects of the assault, contributing new information to those researching the effects of sexual violence, those working with survivors, and policy makers developing survivor treatment plans.

KEYWORDS: :

• Childhood sexual violence
• adolescent sexual violence
• education attainment
• occupational choice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Wadsworth et al. (2020) identified mental health symptoms and diagnoses, substance abuse, inflexible attendance policies, and workplace bullying as barriers to healing and occupational well-being.