Reports of parental maltreatment during childhood in a United States population-based survey of homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual adults

Abstract

Objective: The study objective was to determine the nature and prevalence of childhood maltreatment experiences among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults and to compare findings to those obtained from similar heterosexual adults.

Method: Data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), which measured both childhood experiences with parental emotional and physical maltreatment and adult sexual orientation, were used to compare childhood maltreatment experiences of 2917 heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual individuals, age 25–74 years, separately by gender.

Results: Homosexual/bisexual men reported higher rates than heterosexual men of childhood emotional and any physical maltreatment (including major physical maltreatment) by their mother/maternal guardian and major physical maltreatment by their father/paternal guardian. In contrast, homosexual/bisexual women, as compared to heterosexual women, reported higher rates of major physical maltreatment by both their mother/maternal guardian and their father/ paternal guardian. Differences among individuals with differing sexual orientations were most pronounced for the more extreme forms of physical maltreatment.

Conclusions: Adult minority sexual orientation is a risk indicator for positive histories of experiencing parental maltreatment during childhood. While the reasons for this are beyond the scope of the current study, previous research suggests that childhood individual differences, including possibly gender atypicality, may be a causal factor.

Introduction

Maltreatment during childhood, including physical, sexual, psychological, and emotional abuse and/or neglect, continues to be an important public health concern in the United States (US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, 2001). According to official government statistics, believed to underestimate the problem, approximately 1.2% of children are seriously maltreated each year (US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, 2001). In addition to the immediate threat of physical and psychological harm to the child, childhood maltreatment has been shown to be associated with various adverse mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood, including affective and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, and high-risk sexual behavior (Arellano, 1996, Bartholow et al., 1994, Felitti et al., 1998, Fergusson & Lynskey, 1997, Glod, 1993; Kessler, Davis, & Kendler, 1997; Langeland & Hartgers, 1998, Malinosky-Rummell & Hansen, 1993; Moeller, Bachmann, & Moeller, 1993; Molnar, Buka, & Kessler, 2001; Paul, Catania, Pollack, & Stall, 2001; Silverman, Reinherz, & Giaconia, 1996; Walker et al., 1999).

While there is some uncertainty about the ways in which individual characteristics of a child may contribute to risk for maltreatment (Ammerman, 1991), there are some characteristics that do appear to be correlated with the occurrence of childhood abuse and neglect (Friedrich & Boriskin, 1976). Children with a physical or mental disability (Goldson, 1998, Sullivan & Knutson, 2000, Westcott & Jones, 1999) and those exhibiting opposite sex-linked behaviors (McConaghy & Silove, 1992) experience higher rates of abuse and neglect and overall poorer relationships with their parents. There is also growing suspicion that some who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, either in adolescence or eventually adulthood, may experience higher rates of maltreatment during childhood and adolescence (Tjaden, Thoennes, & Allison, 1999). This may be due to the stigma associated with minority sexual orientation, differences in problem behaviors such as drug or alcohol use (Fergusson, Horwood, & Beautrais, 1999; Garofalo, Wolf, Kessel, Palfrey, & DuRant, 1998; Russell, Driscoll, & Truong, 2002; Saewyc, Bearinger, Heinz, Blum, & Resnick, 1998), and/or gender nonconformity (Harry, 1989).

Although research in this area has been hampered by methodological difficulties, over the last several years studies have repeatedly documented that help-seeking lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth commonly report positive histories of victimization and abuse (Hunter, 1990, Martin & Hetrick, 1988, Remafedi, 1987; Rotheram-Borus, Rosario, & Koopman, 1991). For example, Martin and Hetrick (1988) found that over 40% of youth seeking services at an agency serving homosexually oriented adolescents reported experiencing physical violence, with approximately half of the violence occurring within their families, mostly in interactions with parents. Twenty-two percent of clients within this agency also reported experiencing sexual abuse. Although youth seeking social services might be more likely than other youth to experience maltreatment, a later study that recruited lesbian, gay, and bisexual participants from nonclinical settings also observed high prevalence of familial physical and psychological victimization (Pilkington & D’Augelli, 1995). Further, several recent school-based surveys of adolescents in Massachusetts (Faulkner & Cranston, 1998, Garofalo et al., 1998; Garofalo, Wolf, Wissow, Woods, & Goodman, 1999) and Minnesota (Saewyc, Bearinger, Blum, & Resnick, 1999) report higher rates of violent victimization generally within the context of school and community settings among youth reporting either same-gender sexual behavior or a lesbian, gay, or bisexual identity.

Surveys of homosexual and bisexual adults recalling their childhood experiences are less common and the evidence for greater risk for maltreatment is equivocal. Convenience-drawn samples find frequent retrospective reports of childhood maltreatment among lesbians and gay men (Bradford, Ryan, & Rothblum, 1994; Doll, Joy, Bartholow, & Harrison, 1992; Lehmann, Lehmann, & Kelly, 1998). However, when heterosexual comparison groups are included, similar rates of retrospective self-reports of childhood sexual abuse for heterosexual women and lesbian respondents are observed (Griffith, Myers, Cusick, & Tankersley, 1997; Weingourt, 1998). We are aware of only one published population-based study (Tjaden et al., 1999) that examined associations between childhood maltreatment and adult sexual orientation. Tjaden et al. (1999), using data from the National Violence Against Women Survey, demonstrated that respondents cohabiting with a same-sex partner were more likely than those cohabiting with an opposite-sex partner to report physical abuse by a parent or caretaker during childhood. Furthermore, the physical abuse reported by same-sex cohabitants was more severe.

In the present study, we examined the prevalence of retrospective reports of parental emotional and physical maltreatment during childhood among individuals who self-identified as either heterosexual or homosexual/bisexual in the 1996 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) (Brim et al., 1996). The objectives were twofold. The first was to estimate the prevalence and pattern of parental maltreatment experiences during childhood among self-identified homosexual and bisexual adults. The second objective was to investigate the possibility that minority sexual orientation is a risk indicator for childhood maltreatment.