The purpose of the study described in this article was to separate the effects of prior childhood sexual or physical abuse from the effects of prior adult sexual or physical abuse as determining or predicting factors in the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. The authors gathered 117 women who had been victims of rape within less than a month of the date on which they were to be surveyed. Three subscales created to determine the presence of factors that would predict the development of PTSD after a recent assault were used to collect data from the subjects. The titles of each subscale: Childhood Sexual Abuse, Childhood Physical Abuse, and Adult Victimization, are self-explanatory as to which past experiences were inquired about within them. .
The results of the study showed an extremely high correlation between childhood abuse and adult victimization. Sexual abuse during childhood, but not physical abuse during childhood was linked in this study to high incidence of physical and/or sexual assault as an adult. Even though childhood sexual abuse predicted adult victimization, this study found that it did not directly predict whether or not a current rape victim would develop PTSD. The only predictor found for PTSD development in this study from current assaults was prior adult victimization, which was predicted by childhood sexual abuse. Therefore, childhood sexual abuse was found to be only an indirect predictor of the development of PTSD symptoms following a current assault. .
This study raised the question: "why does a history of childhood abuse lead to a high incidence of victimization as an adult?" The authors of this study proposed a few hypotheses, such as the fact that childhood abuse leads to impaired interpersonal functioning as an adult or that the stressors involved with such early abuse (depression, anxiety, PTS symptoms, substance abuse) could lead to dysfunctional appraisal of risk in dangerous situations.
