Associations between Childhood Sexual Abuse and Sexual Well-being in Adulthood: A Systematic Literature Review

ABSTRACT

Child 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. Some studies also found no significant association between CSA and adult sexual well-being. Faced with these mixed results, understanding how CSA may affect sexual well-being in adulthood remains challenging for clinicians and researchers. The aim of this comprehensive literature review was to synthesize the empirical studies published in the last five years documenting the associations between CSA and several indicators of sexual well-being in adults excluding risky sexual behaviors. The literature search yielded 18 eligible studies which mainly examined five domains of sexual outcomes of CSA: sexual function, sexual satisfaction, sex-related cognitions, sexual behaviors and affective components of sexuality. Findings suggest that CSA is not unanimously related to all domains of sexual well-being, but rather, that associations are largely a function of the presence of other comorbidities or nature of the sample. Moreover, men are still significantly underrepresented in reviewed studies. Implications of the findings will be discussed in light of their relevance for clinicians and for researchers about gaps in current literature need to be filled.

KEYWORDS:

• Child sexual abuse
• sexual function
• sexual satisfaction
• sexual cognitions
• sexual behaviors
• sex-related affects

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Carolyne Gosselin for her assistance with the systematic literature review.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Sophie Bergeron’s grant number is 435-2016-0668 and comes from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.The postdoctoral fellowship for Noémie Bigras comes from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) too and the number of the fellowship is 756-2019-0239.

Notes on contributors

Noémie Bigras

Noémie Bigras, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal.

Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel

Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, PhD., is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada.

Marie-Chloé Nolin

Marie-Chloé Nolin received her B.A. in psychology from the Université Laval. She is a current graduate student in the Department of Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada.

Sophie Bergeron

Sophie Bergeron, Ph.D., is a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Intimate Relationships and Sexual Well-being.