The effects of forced sexual intercourse on white female adolescents

In the 1987 National Survey of Children the question was asked: "Was there ever a time when you were forced to have sex against your will, or were you raped?" Among White females, aged 18-22, those who answered yes (n = 41) and no (n = 400) were compared on a number of social-psychological and sexual variables that might be thought of as outcomes affected by having had coercive sexual experience(s). Those who reported being forced to have sexual intercourse, compared to those who did not, had more permissive attitudes about 16-17-year-olds having intercourse and a younger age of first voluntary sexual intercourse themselves. They also had lower internal locus of control and higher depression scores, and they needed and received more psychological help than those not reporting forced sexual intercourse. Dividing the forced sexual intercourse group (FSI) into those reporting FSI before versus after their first date, and those whose FSI was before versus after age 12, yielded essentially the same findings. Even in the presence of multivariate control variables. FSI experience remained a significant predictor of age at first voluntary sexual intercourse, locus of control, depression, and perceived need for psychological help. These analyses of national survey data support the clinical perspective that forced sexual intercourse causes or exacerbates various sexual and psychological problems.