THE PREVALENCE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE - INTEGRATIVE REVIEW ADJUSTMENT FOR POTENTIAL RESPONSE AND MEASUREMENT BIASES

This integrative review synthesizes the findings of 16 cross-sectional surveys (25 hypotheses) on the prevalence of child abuse among noncli nical, North American samples. It is essentially a research literature on sexual abuse; only one of the studies assessed physical abuse, and there has not yet been a single study of prevalent child emotional ab use nor neglect. The following summative inferences were made: (1) res ponse rates diminished significantly over time, M = 68% prior to 1985 and M = 49% for more recent surveys, p < .05; (2) unadjusted estimates of the prevalent experience among women and men of childhood sexual a buse was 22.3% and 8.5%, respectively; (3) study response rates and ch ild abuse operational definitions together accounted for half of the o bserved variability in their abuse prevalence estimates, R(2) = .500, p < .05; (4) female and male child sexual abuse prevalence estimates a djusted for response rates (60% or more) were respectively, 16.8% and 7.9%, and adjusted for operational definitions (excluding the broadest , noncontact category) they were 14.5% and 7.2%; (5) after adjustment for response rates and definitions, the prevalence of child sexual abu se was not found to vary significantly over the three decades reviewed . Given the large human costs, both personal and social, of child abus e, and the identified gap in the requisite knowledge needed to steer e ffective preventive and treatment interventions, it is time to invest in a large, methodologically rigorous, population-based study of child abuse which, if it does nothing else, spares no expense in ensuring v ery high participation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.