Second Thoughts: Sexual abuse and sexual orientation

In my last blog, I argued that there was a possibility I may be bisexual due to my experience with sexual assault. I attended a Straight Talk, sponsored by the LGBTAQ community and was told something shocking. The truth is, there may be no relationship between sexual abuse and sexual orientation. I found this to be quite fascinating because for some time I believed that this was most likely my reason. I thought it made sense. I thought it was the woman’s fault  who touched me at a young age opening up my mind to this new phenomenon, but it isn’t her fault according to the Straight Talk. I decided to do some research.

Warren Throckmorton suggested in a 2009 journal that a study that had been conducted aimed to seek if childhood sexual abuse  had any relationship between the likelihood of same-sex partnerships in the future. The study pulled 72 sexually abused children, 429 neglected children and 415 children living healthy lifestyles with no sexual abuse or neglect. These numbers are a little questionable. It is a rather small group to study. Meanwhile, all of these children were asked about their sex lives at the age of 40 and roughly 8% of the entire sampled children responded that they have had a relationship with the opposite sex. The study shows that the abuse was not significantly associated with the sexual orientations of the children when they reached adulthood. The findings in the study are so called to be tentative and the link provided these results and this study is rather weak, but there’s the issue with the sample size. The journal further encourages more research to explore the relationship between sexual assault and sexual orientation.

I decided that the numbers were too questionable so I moved on to another study, an even bigger one, specifically The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey which consist of 2010 findings on victimization by sexual orientation. Even though the data is in the thousands and hundred thousands, the sample size cannot provide adequate data for everything it wants to accomplish. For example, 98.3% of bisexual woman and 99.1% of heterosexual women who participated in the study and have been sexually assaulted reported that there perpetrators were mostly male, but that did not change their sexual orientation. However, estimates for lesbian women were too small to determine a reliable estimate so the statistics for those woman were not reported. The study suggest “Statistical tests comparing the sex of the perpetrator across sexual orientation for female victims of sexual violence was not conducted due to small sample sizes.” This is the same for male victims. 78.6% of gay men and about 66% of bisexual men  who experienced sexual assault reported that there perpetrators were mostly male as well, but that has not had any influence on their sexual orientation. However, estimates for gay and bisexual men were too small to determine a reliable estimate so the statistics for those men were not reported.

Overall, both studies have some gray areas specifically due to there sample size and no matter how small or large their sample size is, both readings support that the relationship between sexual abuse and sexual orientation is weak, even without complete data.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2009/01/20/sexual-abuse-and-sexual-orientation-a-prospective-study/

Click to access nisvs_factsheet_lbg-a.pdf

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