The objective of the present study was to examine the direct and indirect impacts of childhood sexual abuse on maternal attitudes, perceptions, and behavior. The study's participants were a subset of 357 primiparous women interviewed at 28 to 32 weeks' gestation between the fall of 1990 and early 1992. At the time of the initial interview, almost 35% of the women reported sexual abuse before age 18. In 1995 and 1996, 265 women, 74% of the original sample, were re-interviewed when their children were between two and fours years old. In this sample 40% of the respondents had been identified as sexually abused in the first study. In the follow-up interview, variables measuring parenting outcomes included: child-rearing competence, satisfaction, and efficacy; parenting stress; discipline practices; and family functioning. Variables measuring possible mediating factors between a history of sexual abuse and parenting practices included: education, occupation, income, family structure; current physical and mental health parameters, particularly depressive symptomatology; perceived current stresses unrelated to parenting; current family violence or sexual victimization; and parental sense of mastery. The data file distributed for this study contains 265 cases and 556 variables.

Investigators: Benedict, Mary