ACTS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE - AN EMPIRICALLY DERIVED TYPOLOGY

A clinical sample of 165 women survivors in outpatient therapy was sur veyed about whether their childhood sexual abuse (CSA) included each o f 17 sexual acts. Factor analysis of these acts was conducted. A typol ogy of CSA acts consisting of three factors emerged. Inspection of the acts loading on each factor suggested that they differed primarily in terms of the type of abuse of power implied by them rather than in th e nature of the sexual behavior involved. The three factors were named Coerced Complicance (Coersion), Subjugation and Humiliation (Subjugat ion) and Invasive Objectification (Objectification). Implications for research, theory, and clinical practice, and the need for evaluating t he generalizability of the typology to other subpopulations of survivo rs, are discussed.