Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Risk for Serious Physical Victimization in Adolescence and Adulthood

Childhood sexual abuse is widespread and has been tied to numerous negative outcomes that occur throughout the remainder of the life course. The current study sought to replicate and extend previous research by examining the connection between childhood sexual abuse and extreme forms of serious physical victimization later in life. To do so, we analyzed males and females drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The results of the analysis for males revealed that childhood sexual abuse was associated with three of the four physical victimization scales that were collected during adolescence and adulthood. For females, childhood sexual abuse was associated with two of the four physical victimization scales (one in adolescence and one in adulthood). Taken together, these results provide some evidence showing a linkage between childhood sexual abuse and subsequent physical victimization.