The Effects of Sexual Assault on Sexual Attitudes

SUMMARY

As a means of studying the effects of sexual assault on sexual attitudes, two categories of sexual attitude measures taken from the National Health and Social Life Surveys were analyzed. One category contains measures of the appeal of various sexual acts to women; the other assesses general sexual attitudes such as approval of premarital sex. We proposed that women who were sexually assaulted as children would have less traditional sexual attitudes, and that women who experienced forced sex after puberty would have more traditional attitudes. Comparisons of means consistently showed that women who experienced forced sex at any age had less traditional sexual attitudes, and reported that various sex acts had a stronger appeal.

Key Words:

• Sexual assault
• sexual attitudes
• women as sexual assault victims