In this study the authors examine the effect respondent gender, victim age, and offender treatment programs have upon public attitudes towards sex offenders. A community sample of 235 participants were asked to read a hypothetical vignette involving the sexual assault of a 10-, 15-, or 20-year-old female by a 35-year-old male who subsequently…

The objective of this study was to develop a psychometric measure of risk for sexual victimization from adolescent peers. Items were generated on the basis of the literature and on consultations with a multidisciplinary group of key informants. The items were administered to a sample of 327 female Grade-9 students and examined using exploratory…

Objective: To develop a child victimization survey among a diverse group of child protection experts and examine the performance of the instrument through a set of international pilot studies. Methods: The initial draft of the instrument was developed after input from scientists and practitioners representing 40 countries. Volunteers from the…

Adolescent females are disproportionately represented among reported cases of sexual victimization. Because sexual victimization is associated with an array of negative sequelae (e.g., depression, alcohol abuse), psychometrically sound instruments are urgently needed to assess sexual victimization or coercion. The investigation conducts a…

Suggests a comprehensive approach to evaluation of allegations of sexual abuse by nonverbal autistic people via facilitated communication. Urges specialized psychometric testing, use of an alternative to "message passing" in facilitated communication, and systematic analysis of the allegations. (DB)

Asking children and adolescents directly about their experience of sexual victimization overcomes some of the methodological weaknesses inherent in other approaches. Yet complex legal, ethical, and methodological issues remain. This paper reviews the psychometric properties of those questions or instruments that have measured exposure to child…

Assessed the reliability and validity of Cole's four-item version of the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire (SBQ). Clinical outpatients and undergraduates completed the SBQ and other measures. Results indicated the SBQ's strength lay in two areas: internal consistency and test-retest reliability over a two-week time period. (RJM)

Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of a new measure, the Abuse-Related Beliefs Questionnaire (ARBQ), designed to assess abuse-related beliefs among adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Study 1 examined the structure of the scale, and Study 2 evaluated its reliability and validity. Method: One hundred and seventy female…

To examine the utility of a self-report scale of sexual assault trauma, 223 female victims were interviewed with the 43-item Sexual Assault Symptom Scale II (SASS II) at 1, 3, 7, 11, and 15 months postassault. Factor analyses using principal-components extraction with an oblimin rotation yielded 7 common factors with 31 items. The internal…

Objective: The objectives of the study were: (a) to develop a scale to assess CSA-related loss among a college sample of CSA survivors (CSALM), (b) to examine the measure's convergent validity through associations among depression, alexithymia, coping, and social support, and (c) to test whether social support moderates the relation between…

This research employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches to studying the immediate and long-term coping strategies adopted by survivors of child sexual abuse, focusing on how strategies evolve over time. Qualitative findings showed that coping with child sexual abuse is not static, but changes over time. The narratives of these…