Intergenerational transmission of sexual victimization vulnerability as mediated via parenting

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Abstract

Objectives

Previous research suggests that women's early sexual victimization experiences may influence their parenting behaviors and increase the vulnerability of their children to being sexually victimized. The current study considered whether mother's sexual victimization experiences, in childhood and after age 14, were associated with the sexual victimization experiences reported by their adolescent daughters, and if so, whether these effects were mediated via parenting behaviors.

Methods

The proposed model was examined using a community sample of 913 mothers and their college-bound daughters, recruited by telephone at the time of the daughter's high school graduation. Daughters reported on their experiences of adolescent sexual victimization and perceptions of mothers’ parenting in four domains: connectedness, communication effectiveness, monitoring, and approval of sex. Mothers provided self-reports of their lifetime experiences of sexual victimization.

Results

Consistent with hypotheses, mothers’ victimization was positively associated with their daughters’ victimization. The effect of mothers’ childhood sexual abuse was direct, whereas the effect of mothers’ victimization after age 14 was mediated via daughters’ perceptions of mothers’ monitoring and greater approval of adolescent sexual activity. Comparison of the prevalence of specific victimization experiences indicated that mothers were more likely to report forcible rape over their lifetimes; however, daughters were more likely to report unwanted contact and incapacitated rape.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that even in a highly functional community sample, mothers’ sexual victimization experiences are significantly associated with aspects of their parenting behavior and with their daughters’ own experiences of adolescent sexual victimization.

Introduction

A large body of research has established that sexual victimization in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood has lasting negative effects on a variety of outcomes including physical health (Elklit & Shevlin, 2010), sexual functioning (vanRoode, Dickson, Herbison, & Paul, 2009), and mental health, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse (Burnam et al., 1988, Kessler et al., 1995, Nelson et al., 2002). Early sexual victimization can also have lasting negative effects on parenting in adulthood (e.g., Noll, Trickett, Harris, & Putnam, 2009, see DiLillo, 2001 for a review). Poor parenting and family environments have wide-ranging negative effects on offspring (Repetti, Taylor, & Seeman, 2002), which may result in another generation of children who are themselves sexually victimized. The current study explored the association between sexual victimization experiences of mothers and their adolescent daughters.

Multiple studies have documented that mothers who report sexual victimization during childhood or adolescence are more likely to have a child who has also experienced sexual abuse (e.g., Avery et al., 2002, Zuravin et al., 1996). These studies do not implicate mothers as responsible for their offspring's victimization, certainly not as the perpetrator. Rather, they typically are interpreted as indicative of negative consequences of sexual victimization (e.g., poverty, early pregnancy, depression, trauma symptoms, and substance use), which create a harmful environment for the child, thereby increasing the child's risk of victimization (Noll et al., 2009, Serbin and Karp, 2004). For example, McCloskey and Bailey (2000) found that the relationship between mother's sexual victimization and her child's sexual victimization was partially mediated via the mother's drug use.

A related body of research has considered the parenting attitudes and practices of women who were victimized in childhood (see Serbin & Karp, 2004 for a review). Mothers who experienced childhood victimization engaged in harsher and more physical punishment of their young children (DiLillo et al., 2000, Dubowitz et al., 2001), with studies implicating maternal depression as mediating the relationship between mother's CSA and later harsh parenting (Banyard et al., 2003, Mapp, 2010, Schuetze and Eiden, 2005). On the other hand, there is also some evidence that mothers who experienced early sexual victimization may be more permissive as parents and fail to set appropriate limits with their children (see DiLillo & Damashek, 2003 for a review). For example Ruscio (2001) found an association between CSA and self-reported permissiveness in parenting and Kim, Trickett, and Putnam (2010) found that CSA was negatively associated with self-reported punitive discipline. Collin-Vezina, Cyr, Pauze, and McDuff (2005) found an indirect effect of mother's CSA on inconsistent discipline and monitoring of their school aged children that was mediated through maternal dissociation.

Most studies examining the effects of mother's sexual victimization on parenting and child outcomes have been restricted to preschool and pre-adolescent children. However, as children enter adolescence, the consequences of poor parenting may be particularly deleterious, and are associated with various negative outcomes such as increased sexual activity, substance use, and delinquency (Ary et al., 1999, Lac and Crano, 2009, Resnick et al., 1997). Specific to adolescent sexual behavior, reviews of the literature indicate that parental closeness, communication, and monitoring are all protective factors (Markham et al., 2010, Meschke et al., 2002). Cavanaugh and Classen (2009) speculate that mothers who were sexually victimized in childhood or adolescence may exhibit deficits in parental communication (particularly about sex) and monitoring, which in turn increase the likelihood that the daughter will engage in sexually risky behaviors and experience sexual victimization herself. In addition, women with sexual victimization histories have been shown to have more liberal sexual attitudes (Meston, Heiman, & Trapnell, 1999), which, in turn have been positively associated with sexual behavior in adolescent children (Dittus and Jaccard, 2000, McNeely et al., 2002).

The current study examined the hypothesis that there would be a positive association between the sexual victimization experiences of mothers and those of their adolescent daughters. We were particularly interested in exploring putative mediators of this relationship, hypothesizing that mothers who were victimized would exhibit deficits in parenting behaviors, which would in turn be associated with sexual victimization among daughters. Based on relevant literature, we considered four parenting variables as potential mediators. First, we considered parental monitoring, which is protective against adolescent sexual risk behaviors (e.g., DiClemente et al., 2001, Graaf et al., 2010) and sexual victimization (Small & Kerns, 1993). We also considered the role of two other parenting variables which have been shown to be negatively associated with adolescent sexual activity: mother's communication effectiveness (e.g., Karofsky, Zeng, & Kosorok, 2001) and daughter's feelings of connectedness to her mother (e.g., feeling loved, Jaccard and Dittus, 2002, McNeely et al., 2002). Finally, we considered the mediating role of perceived maternal approval of adolescent sexual activity, since greater parental approval of sex has been positively associated with sexual activity among adolescents (Dittus & Jaccard, 2000). We were able to consider the independent contributions of mother's CSA experiences as well as mother's unwanted sexual experiences after age 14. Given the nascent state of the literature, we offered no specific hypotheses regarding differential effects of these two types of victimization on these parenting factors.

Although the current data set was not originally designed to test these relationships, it provided some advantages in examining them relative to previous studies. Whereas many previous studies of the effects of maternal victimization on children have relied on samples of mothers or children who had been referred for services, the current sample of mothers and daughters was recruited from households in the community to take part in a study of transition to college. Thus, all daughters were the same age (seniors in high school) and the sample was highly functional. As a result, differences that emerge between victimized and non-victimized mothers can more readily be attributed to this experience.

The data also allowed us to compare the prevalence of lifetime sexual victimization reported by mothers with that reported by their adolescent daughters. Women are at highest risk of sexual assault between the ages of 16 and 19, with the risk decreasing with increasing age (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006). Accordingly, past year incidence of rape in a national college sample was much higher (5.15%) compared to a household sample of adult women (.94%, Kilpatrick, Resnick, Ruggierio, Conoscenti, & McCauley, 2007). However, even if risk of sexual victimization decreases over time, logically, rates of lifetime sexual victimization among older women should be at least as high as those of a college student. Accordingly, lifetime rate of rape was higher among adult women (18.0%) compared to college students (11.5%, Kilpatrick et al., 2007). On the other hand, whereas rape is a highly salient and memorable traumatic event that is unlikely to be forgotten with the passage of time, less severe forms of sexual victimization occurring many years earlier may be more difficult to recall. For example, in a representative household sample of women 18–30, rates of verbally coerced sexual contact were substantially lower than those reported in Koss et al.’s national college sample, despite the fact that the Testa sample was older (Testa, VanZile-Tamsen, Livingston, & Koss, 2004). This intriguing finding led us to speculate that less severe victimization experiences may be forgotten or re-interpreted over time. The current data allowed us to compare rates of different types of sexual victimization experiences for adolescents versus adult women. We hypothesized that mothers would report higher rates of lifetime rape, but tentatively hypothesized that daughters would report higher rates of less severe types of victimization, such as unwanted contact, relative to mothers.

Section snippets

Recruitment and subjects

Participants consisted of 913 adolescent females and their mothers who were recruited from households in Erie County, New York at the time of the daughter's high school graduation. At baseline, students were on average 18.1 (SD = 0.33) years old and mothers were 47.7 (SD = 4.78) years old. Most participants were Caucasian (91.5% students, 93.2% mothers, compared to 82.2% Caucasian for the county) and 75% of mothers had at least some college education. The majority of households included a mother

Prevalence of sexual victimization

Before considering the indirect effects of mother's victimization on daughter's victimization, we compared the prevalence of different types of sexual victimization experiences for mothers and daughters. The revised SES measure, by crossing all tactics with all outcomes, can be scored to reveal the types of sexual victimization experiences reported, including contact, attempted coercion, coercion, attempted rape, and completed rape (see Testa, Hoffman & Livingston, 2010 for scoring). Because of

Discussion

The current study considered whether mother's childhood and adult sexual victimization experiences are associated with their daughters’ experiences of adolescent sexual victimization. Results provide some support for hypotheses. First, mothers’ childhood sexual abuse experiences and experiences occurring after age 14 modestly but significantly increased the likelihood that their adolescent daughters would report adolescent sexual victimization. Importantly, we found indirect effects of mother's

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    This research was supported by grant R01 AA014514 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

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