The lifetime prevalence of child sexual abuse and sexual assault assessed in late adolescence.
Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Adolescent Health
Abstract
Purpose: To estimate the likelihood that a recent cohort of children would be exposed to sexual
abuse and sexual assault by age 17 in the United States.
Methods: This analysis draws on three very similarly designed national telephone surveys of youth
in 2003, 2008, and 2011, resulting in a pooled sample of 708 17-year-olds, 781 15-year-olds, and
804 16-year-olds.
Results: The lifetime experience of 17-year-olds with sexual abuse and sexual assault was 26.6%
(95% confidence interval [CI] 19.8e33.5) for girls and 5.1% (95% CI 2.6e7.6) for boys. The lifetime
experience with sexual abuse and sexual assault at the hands of adult perpetrators exclusively was
11.2% (95% CI 6.4e16.1) for females and 1.9% (95% CI .5e3.4) for males. For females, considerable
risk for sexual abuse and assault was concentrated in late adolescence, as the rate rose from 16.8%
(95% CI 11.5e22.2) for 15-year-old females to 26.6% (95% CI 19.8e33.5) for 17-year-old females. For
males, it rose from 4.3% (95% CI 1.9e6.8) at 15 years to 5.1% (2.6e7.6) at 17 years.
Conclusions: Self-report surveys in late adolescence reveal high rates of lifetime experience with
sexual abuse and sexual assault at the hands of both adults and peers. Because of high continuing
victimization during the late teen years, assessments are most complete when conducted among
the oldest youth
Description
item.page.type
Article
item.page.format
Keywords
prevalence, sexual assault, adolescent, statistics, research
Citation
Finkelhor, D., Shattuck, A., Turner, H. A., & Hamby, S. L. (2014). The lifetime prevalence of child sexual abuse and sexual assault assessed in late adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Health.