AN ANALYSIS OF HUMAN-SEXUALITY TEXTBOOK COVERAGE OF THE PSYCHOLOGICALCORRELATES OF ADULT NONADULT SEX

Browne and Finkelhor (1986) cautioned that it is important that child abuse researchers not exaggerate or overstate the intensity or inevita bility of negative consequences for children or adolescents who experi ence sex with adults. In recent years a number of researchers have arg ued that this problem has been increasing, with negative repercussions . The purpose of the current research was to analyze possible overstat ement (i.e., bias) from one important source human sexuality textbooks . To assess bias, a review of the literature on, correlates of adult-c hild and adult-adolescent sex was first conducted to determine the cri teria with which to make judgments. This review revealed that findings from clinical and legal samples, which typically indicate highly nega tive correlates, do not generalize beyond clinical/legal populations. Three nationally representative samples and a large number of college samples indicate that correlates are much less negative in, the genera l population. Based on the criteria that emerged from the review 5 cod ers made 14 judgements concerning biased reporting and invalid inferen ces for each of 14 current human sexuality textbooks. Results were tha t 9 textbooks presented highly biased information, 3 textbooks were mo derately biased, and 2 were unbiased. Bias in reporting correlates was indicated by an overreliance on, findings from clinical and legal sam ples, exaggerated reports of the extent and typical intensity of harm, failure to separate incestuous from nonincestuous experiences, failur e to separate experiences of females from those of males, inaccurate d iscussions of sex: differences in reactions, inappropriate generalizat ions, and inappropriate causal attributions. I concluded that the over reliance on using reports from clinical and legal samples resulted in, many of the other biases. Problems that may arise from these biased p resentations were discussed.