Joint Consequences of Parental Alcoholism and Childhood Sexual Abuse, and Their Partial Mediation by Family Environment

• Published in: Violence and victims 1992-01, Vol.7 (4), p.313-325
• Main Authors: Yama, Mark F., Tovey, Stephanie L., Fogas, Bruce S., Teegarden, Lisa A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adults; Alcoholism; Alcoholism - psychology; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Child Abuse, Sexual - psychology; Child of Impaired Parents - psychology; Children of alcoholics; Colleges & universities; Counseling; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Families & family life; Family - psychology; Female; Gender Identity; Humans; Marriage and Family Counselling; Medical sciences; Personality Assessment; Personality Development; Personality disorders; Policy, Social Justice, and Human Rights; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk factors; Sex crimes; Social and Personality Psychology; Social Environment; Social Work; Victimology
• ISSN: 0886-6708; 1945-7073
• DOI: 10.1891/0886-6708.7.4.313

This study investigated the effects of childhood sexual abuse and parental alcoholism in a sample of university women. Current symptoms of anxiety and depression were measured together with retrospective reports of subjects' families of origin. Using a 2X2 factorial design, main effects on symptoms were obtained for sexual abuse and parental alcoholism, but their interaction was not significant. With respect to family environment, a history of sexual abuse was associated with perceptions that families of origin had less cohesion, more conflict, less emphasis on moral-religious matters, less emphasis on achievement, and less of an orientation towards intellectual, cultural, and recreational pursuits. Similarly, subjects who had alcoholic parents reported less family cohesion, more conflict, and less emphasis on moral-religious matters. Results of analyses of co variance suggested that family environment was a mediator of current symptoms of anxiety, but not symptoms of depression.