Peer victimization as a risk factor for schizotypal personality in childhood and adolescence

There has been no prior research on peer victimization and child or adolescent schizotypal personality. This study tests the hypothesis that increased peer victimization is associated with increased schizotypal personality. Schizotypy was assessed using the SPQ-C (Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Child) in 3,508 male and female schoolchildren aged 8 to 16 years. All forms of peer victimization (physical, verbal, social manipulation, attack on property) were associated with schizotypal personality in both males and females across all age groups. Significant victimization more than doubled schizotypy scores. It is hypothesized that peer victimization may predispose to paranoid ideation, social anxiety, and lack of close friends, and consequently heightened schizotypal personality.     

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual victimization in the military: an unintended consequence of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?

The integration of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals into the U.S. military is a long-standing and politically and socially divisive issue. Exclusionary and pseudo-inclusionary policies that restrict openly LGB individuals from military service are also of long duration. Yet LGB servicemembers have continued to serve covertly in the military for many decades. Moreover, political issues and social conventions associated with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) have diverted focus from imperative research issues, such as LGB servicemembers and incidents of victimization in the military. Research is reviewed to evaluate such victimization, which is conceptualized as resulting from a convergence of sexual stigma, conservative gender role beliefs, and sexual prejudice. DADT, in combination with overarching difficulties intrinsic to sexual orientation research, serves to augment LGB victimization and reduce victim reports and help seeking. Consequently, there is a deficient evidence base for assisting LGB servicemembers and for advancing research, prevention efforts, and policy changes. Implications of repealing DADT are discussed, as are future directions for LGB military research.     

An overview of the literature on female-perpetrated adult male sexual victimization

The rape of women has been an issue of concern in research literature for the past 40 years. Conversely, rape against men has only relatively recently received investigation. The current paper reviews the existing research literature regarding male rape and sexual assault, with particular emphasis on female perpetrated male sexual victimization. The review covers issues regarding biased legal definitions, rape myths, feminist theory, and stereotypical or negative beliefs; all of which create a problematic social environment for male victims of female perpetrated assault to report crimes. The review also discusses the prevalence of female perpetrated attacks against men, with evidence from self-reports by female sex offenders to highlight the existence of male sexual victimization and the aggressive manner in which the sexual activity is committed. The review concludes that male sexual victimization by women should be taken as seriously as that of women by men.     

Susceptibility to sexual victimization and women’s mating strategies

Women show stable individual differences in mating strategies ranging from short-term to long-term. Short-term mating strategies may put women at greater risk of sexual victimization through increased exposure to risky situations or to men most inclined to pursue a strategy of sexual coercion. To test these predictions, we studied female college students who had experienced a completed rape, an attempted sexual victimization, or no sexual victimization. Women’s mating strategies were assessed through the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory. Victims further reported whether they engaged in consensual intimate behaviors with their victimizer before or after the victimization. Victims of completed rape scored highest on short-term mating strategy pursuit; non-victims scored lowest; women experiencing attempted victimization scored between these two groups. Victims of completed rape also more frequently reported consensual kissing and intercourse with their victimizer before and after the victimization than women who experienced attempted victimization. The findings of this study should not be interpreted as blaming the victim, but rather as identifying circumstances that put women at greater risk. Clearly, perpetrators are to blame for sexual victimization. Discussion focuses on future research directions and on practical implications for reducing rates of sexual victimization.     

Risk factors for child sexual abuse

We review the risk and protective factors for child sexual abuse. Overall, characteristics of perpetrators, victims, and families of victims were moderate to strong risk factors for child sexual abuse. However, it is difficult to distinguish between risk factors for extra-familial and intra-familial child sexual victimization because most of the studies combined these two types of child sexual abuse, although the risk factors for these two types of child sexual abuse most likely differ. Research in this area is difficult because etiological and prevention models of victimization would differ substantially from those of perpetration. Given the low yearly prevalence of child sexual victimization, very large samples would be necessary to obtain sufficient power. Thus, most studies have used lifetime prevalence, which may provide much useful information but which add substantial time confounds. Finally, child sexual victimization is probably a misnomer, as the nature, impact, and etiology of sexual victimization most likely differs over the large age span of childhood and gender. Because improved models and prevention programs require improved etiological models (based on knowledge of risk and protective factors), we hope that this review will focus stakeholders on the need for continued research in this area.     

Gender Differences in Victimization and the Relation to Personality Disorders in Forensic Psychiatry

Gender differences in victimization were retrospectively examined in 218 male and 218 female patients who have been admitted to one of four Dutch forensic psychiatric hospitals between 1984 and 2014. Case files were studied and variables relating to victimization and psychopathology were coded. It was found that the prevalence rates of victimization were higher among female patients than among male patients, both during childhood and adulthood. Childhood sexual abuse was found to be more prevalent among women than men, however, no differences were found for emotional and physical abuse or neglect during childhood. Women with a history of emotional or sexual abuse were significantly more often diagnosed with borderline personality disorder than women without childhood victimization. Men with a history of physical abuse were significantly more often diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder than men without childhood victimization. Clinical and policy implications of this study for forensic practice are discussed.     

Everyday Victimization of Adolescent Girls by Boys: Sexual Harassment, Bullying or Aggression?

School-based sexual harassment of adolescent girls by boys appears commonplace, yet aggression and bullying studies rarely yield sexualized material. This qualitative Australian study with 72 14- to 15-year-olds and 7 teachers aimed to discover whether interviewer use of neutral language in gender-segregated focus groups and interviews would yield material indicating that the victimization of girls by boys is sexualized. Verbal and indirect victimization were reported to be everyday occurrences, and almost entirely sexual. Findings are discussed in the light of definitions of sexual harassment, bullying and aggression. It is concluded that the term “sexual bullying” appropriately captures the gendered power structure underlying these behaviors. As such, they need to be understood, and become visible, more broadly than in terms of individual pathology.     

Adolescents’ and their friends’ sexual behavior and intention: Selection effects of personality dimensions

Using simulation investigation for empirical network analyses (in RSiena) we examined how personality and sexual behavior and intention were related to peer processes in Dutch adolescents. Our main research questions were: (a) do adolescents cluster together in friendship networks based on personality, sexual behavior, and/or sexual intention? And (b), do adolescents influence each other in their sexual behavior and intention? Results showed that adolescents clustered together based on dissimilarity in agreeableness, and similarity in gender and sexual intention. Further, we found that adolescents with lower levels of emotional stability had friends with more similar levels of sexual intention. The limited variance and low base rates of sexual behavior and intention did not allow us to explicitly test socialization effects.     

Women's bar‐related victimization: Refining and testing a conceptual model

A model of bar victimization is proposed that explores the relationships among a woman's exposure to the bar environment (i.e., frequency of going to bars), her intoxication in that setting (i.e., usual number of drinks), and such individual difference factors as her previous history of victimization (childhood sexual abuse, lifetime violence, and previous partner abuse) and personality characteristics (depression, social anxiety, sensation seeking, and hostility). Earlier findings from work in this area suggest that exposure to the bar environment increases a woman's risk for more severe aggression. The data being used to test the proposed model are from a survey of 198 women bar drinkers in western New York State. These women described bar‐related victimization that ranged from verbal aggression (e.g., threats) through severe physical and sexual violence (e.g., assault and rape). Younger age, history of victimization, greater negative affect, and more frequent drinking in bars were predictive of more severe bar‐related victimization during the past year. These findings are discussed in terms of women's risk for victimization in bars and needed areas of future research. Aggr. Behav. 25:349–364, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

同伴侵害与人际关系取向人格特质的交叉滞后分析:城市原住儿童与农村随迁儿童的比较

研究采用间隔两年的追踪设计,分析了477名农村随迁儿童（男生57.10%;2014年时平均年龄为11.54±0.64岁）与245名城市原住儿童（男生50.60%;2014年时平均年龄为11.36±0.51岁）的同伴侵害与和谐性、人际触觉两个人际关系取向人格维度的相互影响。这些儿童分别来自上海市采取融合教育的四所公立初中。他们首次参加本研究时为初中预备年级。交叉滞后分析表明,（1）在原住儿童组,时间1的同伴侵害可以负向预测时间2的和谐性与人际触觉;（2）在随迁儿童组,和谐性与同伴侵害有负向循环作用关系,且时间1的同伴侵害可以负向预测时间2的人际触觉。研究一定程度上揭示了人际人格发展与所处环境（特别是同伴侵害的不利环境）的动态相互作用模式。文章最后讨论了原住儿童与随迁儿童混合编班的融合教育模式对所有城市儿童适应社会转型的现实意义。     

Recollecting events associated with victimization

Subjects first completed social desirability and anxiety personality scales and then read a story about a woman meeting her brother for lunch. Some subjects were then told that the story involved sexual abuse. A week later all subjects took a multiple-choice memory test over the story. The results indicated that subjects categorized as repressors based on the personality scales had a lower proportion of negative than positive errors than did the nonrepressors, but only when they believed the story was about sexual abuse. However, repressors answered correctly as many items as did nonrepressors. The results were consistent with the idea that repressors remember as much about victimization experiences as do nonrepressors but are more likely to fill in the missing details of victimization experiences with positive reconstructions designed to reduce the over-all negative quality associated with victimization.     

Disinhibition as a Mechanism in Sexual Victimization: A Prospective Study

Disinhibition was examined as a mechanism in revictimization using a prospective research design. Of the sample of 211 young adult women, 43.1% reported prior sexual victimization (birth to the time of our initial assessment) and 32.2% reported sexual assault during the 6-month follow-up. The findings suggest that disinhibition was a partial mediator. Prior sexual victimization was associated with increased disinhibition as well as increased future sexual assault. Greater disinhibition was associated with increased future sexual assault. Once disinhibition was accounted for, the original relationship between prior and future sexual assault was reduced. Disinhibition partially explained revictimization and these behaviors might serve as possible targets of change in sexual victimization prevention work.     

Online Victimization,Womanism, and Body Esteem among Young Black Women: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Digital media use represents a central part of young adults’ daily life, within which social interactions increasingly center on visual content. While visual content, such as representations of self, may facilitate positive social interactivity, it may also increase susceptibility to harmful social interactions, such as appearance-related online victimization. Black women’s bodies are often the target of gendered racial microaggressions and sexual victimization which can contribute to body image concerns. Still, the online victimization–body esteem link among Black women remains unexamined. This study used structural equation modeling to examine the associations between four categories of online victimization (i.e., general online victimization, online individual racial victimization, online vicarious racial victimization, online sexual victimization) and body esteem. We further examined whether womanism, an identity-based factor, moderated the relationship between online victimization and body esteem. A sample of 1,595 young Black women completed an online survey. Results showed that online sexual victimization was significantly negatively associated with body esteem and that high levels of womanism buffered the harmful impact of general online victimization on body esteem. Future research is needed to examine Black women’s and gender expansive people’s experiences with online gendered racial victimization along with other forms of online intersectional oppression.

     

Review, critique, and synthesis of personality theory in motivation to sexually assault

A widely-cited meta-analysis of recidivism amongst adult male perpetrators or sexual assult [Hanson and Bussiere, J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 66 (1998) 348–362] found that the presence of any personality disorder (APA, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-III-R. (1987); [APA, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV (1994)] was the only variable to significantly predict sexual recidivism in a category measuring “Psychological Maladjustment” (r₊=.16, n=315). The relationship between personality disturbance and new sexual offenses is undoubtedly a dynamic relationship that deserves exploration. This review and critique of theory covers two theories of personality: (1) a psychoanalytic theory of rapist personality offered by Groth [Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender. (1979), New York: Plenum] and (2) a general biosocial theory or personality disturbance offered by Millon [Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV and Beyond. (1996). New York: Wiley]. Theory offered by Groth is critiqued and limitations considered. Theory offered by Millon is offered and the two approaches are synthesized to suggest possible causes of characteristic psychological disturbance associated with perpetration of sexual assault. Applications for research and practice are considered, and implications of this line of research for risk assessment and sexual assault prevention are reviewed.     

Historical,environmental, and behavioral correlates of sexual offending by male adolescents: A critical review

This article is a critical review of research on the historical, environmental, and behavioral correlates of sexual offending by male adolescents. Variables considered include: demographics, victimization history, delinquency history, sexual history, family situation, social/relationships, intellectual functioning, and psychopathology. The review concludes with suggestions for future research and implications for treatment, assessment, and prevention of sexual offending behavior by adolescents.     

Peer victimization in adolescence has different effects on the sexual behavior of male and female college students

We studied levels of peer victimization from an evolutionary perspective by investigating self-reported victimization during adolescence in relation to sexual behavior in college students. One-hundred and twelve (47 female) undergraduates completed self-report measures of victimization during middle and high school, onset of sexual activity, and number of sexual partners. Nearly 85% of victimization during adolescence was perpetrated by members of the same sex. Furthermore, results show that this intrasexual victimization (particularly indirect forms) was negatively correlated with reproductive opportunities in males, but positively correlated in females. Males who were frequently victimized had fewer total sexual partners and partners per year on average, while females who were often victims of aggression reported having more sexual partners and an earlier onset of sexual activity. Regression analysis revealed that demeaning, diminishing and embarrassing was the most significant predictor of the rate of sexual activity in both sexes (although this relationship was inverted between them), while teasing was the best predictor of total sexual partners in females. This evidence is consistent with evolutionary interpretations regarding human aggression and competition, as well as with recent findings suggesting that indirect victimization during adolescence is a form of intrasexual competition associated with reproductive opportunities.     

Parents’ Experiences of Their Child’s Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

A child’s disclosure of sexual victimization is a difficult experience for parents and has been associated with traumatization, disbelief, denial, self-blame, and clinical difficulties. To date, most studies on parents’ responses have been quantitative assessments of the psychological impact of disclosure on parents. A paucity of research has qualitatively explored mothers’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA) and fathers’ experiences have been even further neglected. The current study seeks to characterize parents’ experiences of their child’s disclosure of CSA and to uncover the process-oriented nature of parental responses. This qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach to analysis, involved interviews with 10 mothers and four fathers whose children (3–18 years) had experienced sexual abuse. Three themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme—making sense of the abuse in retrospect—captured the process through which parents sought to make sense of their child’s disclosure, focusing on why their child had not disclosed the abuse to them earlier, and how they had noticed something was wrong but misattributed their child’s behavior to other factors. The second theme—negotiating parental identity as protector—reflected how parents’ identity as a protector was challenged, their perception of their world had been forever altered, and they now experienced themselves as hypervigilant and overprotective. The final theme—navigating the services—pertained to parents’ struggle in navigating child protection and police services, and feelings of being isolated and alone. These findings highlight the need for empathy and parental support following child disclosure of sexual victimization.     

Indirect peer aggression in adolescence and reproductive behavior

Evolutionary psychologists have suggested that indirect aggression during adolescence is a strategy to compete with same-sex peer rivals for resources, status, and mating opportunities. We collected survey data on 143 young adults to determine retrospectively, the amount of indirect aggressive behavior they perpetrated and the amount of indirect victimization they experienced in middle school and high school. We also collected information about reproductive opportunities such as age at first sexual intercourse and number of lifetime sex partners to determine whether aggression or victimization could be used to predict measures of reproductive opportunity. We performed a principal components analysis to develop factors from 16 aggression and victimization variables. Results indicate that females who reported indirect aggression toward peers had earlier ages at first sexual intercourse and females who were more victimized in adolescence experienced later ages at first sexual intercourse. We discuss these results in terms of intrasexual competition and evolutionary theory.     

青少年早期社交淡漠对同伴关系的预测：学习成绩的调节作用

摘要：对787名小学4年级至初中二年级学生进行一学年的追踪研究,考察社交淡漠对其后同伴接纳、同伴欺侮的预测,以及学习成绩对上述预测关系的调节效应。结果表明：（1）前测社交淡漠可以负向预测后测的同伴接纳,正向预测后测的同伴欺侮;（2）前测学习成绩可以正向预测后测的同伴接纳,负向预测后测的同伴欺侮;（3）社交淡漠对同伴接纳、同伴欺侮的预测受学习成绩的调节,较高的学习成绩会弱化社交淡漠对同伴关系不良的预测效应。这一结果表明,学习成绩可能是一种重要的缓冲因素,可以在一定程度上保护社交淡漠的青少年免受同伴的消极对待。