Social maltreatment as trauma: Posttraumatic correlates of a new measure of exposure to sexism, racism, and cisheterosexism.

OBJECTIVE: Maltreatment based on race, sex, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or other sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQ+) status is a significant life stressor, potentially independent of whether it can be categorized as a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR) trauma. Yet there is a relative lack of research systematically examining these events, their intersectionality, and links to posttraumatic stress (PTS). The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive measure of social discrimination and maltreatment (SDM) and to examine whether these events can serve as potential traumatic stressors, above-and-beyond classic trauma exposure. METHOD: A 36-item Social Discrimination and Maltreatment Scale (SDMS), consisting of three subscales (sexism, racism, and cisheterosexism) and a total score, was developed and validated in a sample of 528 adults. RESULTS: The SDMS and its subscales were internally consistent (αs from .95 to .97) and demonstrated factorial validity in two subsamples (ns = 265 and 263). Marginalized groups each endorsed the most relevant SDMS subscale (e.g., people of color reporting more racism and women reporting more sexism). The total SDM score was associated with PTS even when controlling for general trauma exposure, and there was a linear relationship between the number of elevated SDMS subscales and PTS scores. CONCLUSIONS: Although not considered traumatic in the DSM-5-TR, exposure to sexism, racism, and cisheterosexism may be significant sources of PTS. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Child and Adolescent Exposure to Sexual Harassment: Relationship to Gender, Contact Sexual Abuse, and Adult Psychological Symptoms.

In contrast to adults, there is considerably less research on childhood or adolescent exposure to sexual harassment (CAESH), its lasting psychological correlates, and whether such experiences should be included in definitions of childhood sexual abuse. The current study examined the prevalence and symptomatic sequels of unwanted flirting, being "checked out" sexually, unwanted sexual attention, sexual comments, propositions, and related noncontact behaviors that occurred before age 18, as well as the multivariate relationship between CAESH and contact child sexual abuse (C-CSA) in a diverse online sample of 528 individuals. CAESH was very common, with over 95% of women and 64% of men reporting at least one experience of noncontact sexual harassment before age 18. When childhood sexual abuse was operationalized as the presence of either C-CSA or a total CAESH score of 18 or higher (corresponding to an average score of "3-5 times" prior to age 18), the prevalence was 67% for women and 26% for men, more than three times higher than C-CSA alone. This expanded definition was associated with significantly more anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress relative to C-CSA alone. These results suggest that CAESH is a significant source of symptoms in adults and support the emerging perspective that childhood sexual abuse may be best understood as including both contact and noncontact events.

Sexual assault trauma: Does prior childhood maltreatment increase the risk and exacerbate the outcome?

BACKGROUND: Some individuals who have been sexually assaulted as adolescents or adults have also been abused in childhood, although it is not clear how different forms of childhood maltreatment are related to adolescent/adult sexual assault, and how earlier abuse alters the relationship between sexual assault and current symptomatology. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine which types of child maltreatment are associated with adolescent or adult sexual assault, whether such child maltreatment interacts with sexual assault to predict more severe symptoms, and if sexual assault has unique symptom correlates after controlling for prior child maltreatment. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were 398 women recruited online. RESULTS: A total of 36 % of women had experienced unwanted sexual contact at age 13 or younger (childhood sexual abuse [CSA]), 32 % had experienced unwanted sexual contact at age 14 or later (adolescent/adult sexual assault), and 24.4 % had experienced both. Of all forms of child maltreatment, only CSA was associated with sexual assault, doubling the risk relative to those without a history of CSA. CSA and sexual assault were each uniquely associated with current symptomatology, however there was no interaction between sexual assault and CSA on psychological symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: CSA is associated with a greater risk of later sexual assault, and both CSA and sexual assault have additive effects on adult symptomatology. However, prior sexual abuse does not appear to exacerbate the effects of sexual assault, and sexual assault is associated with lasting psychological sequelae even when controlling for sexual abuse.