Neglect, online invasive exploitation, and childhood sexual abuse in Hong Kong: Breaking the links.

BACKGROUND: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a form of maltreatment that involves a child in sexual activity that she or he cannot fully comprehend or is unable to give informed consent to. The empirical link between child neglect and contact child sexual abuse is well established but little research examines mediators that explain this link. OBJECTIVE: This study tests online risk behaviors and unwanted sexual experiences online as sequential mediators of the neglect - CSA relationship. PARTICIPANT AND SETTING: The study uses a representative cross-sectional sample of 1097 Hong Kong adolescents. METHODS: Preacher and Hayes' (2008) non-parametric bootstrap approach was used to test three mediation hypotheses. RESULTS: Baseline logistic regression models showed neglected children had 11.2 times higher odds of reporting contact CSA (p < .001). Similarly, neglect was associated with 3.5 times higher odds of more online risk behavior (p < .001), which in turn was associated with 2.7 times higher odds of more online invasive exploitation (p < .001). Online invasive exploitation was associated with 2.7 times higher odds of reporting offline contact CSA (p < .001). The study found online risk behaviors to be a significant mediator of the relationship between neglect and online invasive exploitation (unwanted online sexual experiences). Online invasive exploitation, in turn, mediated the relationship between online risk behaviors and offline contact CSA. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight the importance of intervening against neglect as it appears to play a vital role in the etiology of contact CSA in Hong Kong.

Childhood emotional abuse and alcohol use disorders in a national Nepali women sample: The mediating role of borderline personality traits.

While many studies have found an association between childhood emotional abuse and alcohol use disorders (AUD) during adulthood, underlying psychological mechanisms linking the two remain inadequately understood. Drawing on the developmental psychopathology perspective, this study examined the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and AUD during adulthood with a national sample of women in Nepal (N = 1,100, M age = 37.73), focusing on the mediating role of borderline personality traits. Mediation analyses were performed using the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) method and bootstrapping confidence intervals. Results indicated that Nepali women's borderline personality traits significantly mediated the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and AUD. Hence, emotional abuse in childhood increases the risk for AUD during adulthood for Nepali women by increasing the risk of borderline personality traits. Findings underscore the necessity of continued emphasis on developing and implementing early interventions for childhood emotional abuse and therapeutic interventions for borderline personality traits in reducing AUD among vulnerable women in Nepal.