Sex with children is abuse: Comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998)

B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman (1998) reported a meta-analysis of the relation between sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence and psychol ogical functioning among college students. Several aspects of their work ha ve proven to be highly controversial, including their assertion that the re lation between child sexual abuse and adjustment is quite small and their q uestioning of whether child sexual abuse should be labeled abuse in scienti fic inquiry. In this commentary, the authors summarize the controversy that has ensued, place it in a historical context, discuss the limitations of B . Rind et al.'s findings, and critique the manner in which those findings a re presented. The authors also argue for the appropriateness of the term ab use and for scientific terminology that reflects rather than contradicts co nsensual public morality.