Robert Bauserman

A meta-analytic examination of assumed properties of child sexual abuse using college samples

Many lay persons and professionals believe that child sexual abuse (CSA) causes intense harm, regardless of gender, pervasively in the general population. The authors examined this belief by reviewing 59 studies based on college samples. Meta-analyses revealed that students with CSA were, on average, slightly less well adjusted than controls. However, this poorer adjustment could not be attributed to CSA because family environment (FE) was consistently confounded with CSA, FE explained considerably more adjustment variance than CSA, and CSA-adjustment relations generally became nonsignificant when studies controlled for FE. Self-reported reactions to and effects from CSA indicated that negative effects were neither pervasive nor typically intense, and that men reacted much less negatively than women. The college data were completely consistent with data from national samples. Basic beliefs about CSA in the general population were not supported.

The validity and appropriateness of methods, analyses, and conclusions in Rind et al. (1998): A rebuttal of victimological critique from Ondersma et al. (2001) and Dallam et al. (2001).

The authors respond to 2 victimological critiques of their 1998 meta-analysis on child sexual abuse (CSA). S. J. Dallam et al. (2001) claimed that B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman (1998) committed numerous methodological and statistical errors, and often miscoded and misinterpreted data. The authors show all these claims to be invalid. To the contrary, they demonstrate frequent bias in Dallam et al.s criticisms. S. J. Ondersma et al. (2001) claimed that Rind et al.s study is part of a backlash against psychotherapists, that its suggestions regarding CSA definitions were extrascientific, and that the moral standard is needed to understand CSA scientifically. The authors show their suggestions to have been scientific and argue that it is Ondersma et al.s issue-framing and moral standard that are extrascientific. This reply supports the original methods, analyses, recommendations, and conclusions of Rind et al.

The relationship between instrumental and expressive traits, health behaviors, and perceived physical health

Relations between instrumental and expressive traits, health behaviors, and self-reported physical health were examined among young adults. Individuals (169 men, 167 women) completed two measures of instrumental and expressive traits, the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Ethnic background of the sample included 72% European Americans, 13% Latin Americans, 6% Asian Americans, 5% African Americans, less than 1% Native American, and 4% did not specify a particular category. Expressive traits from the BSRI, and expressive and instrumental traits from the PAQ were associated with health behaviors, after controlling for neuroticism. Neuroticism explained 43% of the variance in perceived physical health. Separation of individuals into four groups on the basis of instrumental and expressive traits showed that androgynous individuals reported significantly better health practices than other individuals providing support for the androgyny model.

Science versus orthodoxy: Anatomy of the congressional condemnation of a scientific article and reflections on remedies for future ideological attacks

Abstract In July 1999 the U.S. Congress passed a formal resolution condemning our article on child sexual abuse (CSA), an article in which we concluded, based on 59 meta-analytically reviewed studies using college samples, that the assumed harmfulness of CSA had been overstated ( Rind, Tromovitch, & Bauserman, 1998 ). The condemnation followed months of attacks by social conservatives and by mental health professionals specializing either in curing homosexuality or in treating patients by inducing them to recover memories of CSA. In this article, we detail the chronology behind the attacks. Then we discuss the science behind our meta-analysis, showing that the attacks were specious and that our study employed sound science, advancing the field considerably by close attention to issues of external, internal, and construct validity, as well as precision and objectivity. Next, we discuss orthodoxies and moral panics more generally, arguing that our article was attacked as vehemently as it was because it collided with a powerful, but socially constructed orthodoxy that has evolved over the last quarter century. Finally, we offer reflections and recommendations for fellow researchers, lest this kind of event recur. We focus on the need for greater cognizance of historical attacks on science to anticipate and deflate future attacks. We argue that our research should stand as another reminder among many that sacred-cow issues do not belong in science. We discuss nonscientific advocacy in the social sciences and the need to recognize and counter it. We discuss the failure of psychology to adequately deal with the study of human sexuality, a problem that enabled the faulty attacks on our article, and we suggest directions for becoming more scientific in this area. And last, we raise the issue of how professional organizations might deal more effectively with such attacks in the future.

Biased terminology effects and biased information processing in research on adult‐nonadult sexual interactions: An empirical investigation

Adult‐child and adult‐adolescent sexual interactions have generally been described in the professional literature with value‐laden negative terms. Recently, a number of researchers have criticized this state of affairs, claiming that such usage is likely to have biasing effects. The current investigation examined empirically the biasing impact of negative terminology. Eighty undergraduate students read a shortened journal article that used either neutral or negative terms to describe a number of cases of sexual relationships between male adolescents and male adults—the shortened article was adapted from Tindall (1978). Additionally, students were exposed either to descriptive information or descriptive plus long‐term nonnegative outcome information. The purpose of this manipulation was to examine whether students would process the neutral and positive data in a biased fashion, because these data contradict strongly held assumptions of harm as a consequence of these contacts. Students’ judgments were negat...

Emerging adulthood in American and British samples: individuals' personality and health risk behaviors

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between instrumental and expressive traits, and health-related behaviors among individuals in emerging adulthood (18–25 years old) in two Western societies. Individuals (100 males, 100 females) in an American sample and a British sample (36 males, 75 females) completed the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, a measure of neuroticism, the Health Behaviors Inventory, and two measures of perceived physical health. As hypothesized, in support of the androgyny model, individuals in both samples who scored high on both instrumental and expressive traits reported better health practices (i.e. safety belt use, less smoking) than individuals who scored low on both sets of traits or high on only one set of traits, after controlling for neuroticism. As hypothesized, for both samples, neuroticism explained more variance in perceived physical health than the other personality traits.

Gender role orientation and physical health: A study among young adults

The purpose to this study was to examine the relationship between gender role orientation and physical health among young adults. One hundred forty-five undergraduates (103 females, 42 males) completed a measure of gender role orientation (Bem Sex Role Inventory), self-reported physical health (Personal Health Questionnaire), health related behaviors (Health Behaviors Inventory), and neuroticism (Eysenck Personality Inventory). The sample consisted of European-American (89%), African-American (8%), and Asian-American (3%) individuals. Results showed that gender role orientation was significantly related to health-related behaviors (e.g., smoking, exercise), but not to self-reported physical health (e.g., upper respiratory infections). Overall, androgynous individuals had better health-related behaviors than masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated individuals.

Instrumental and expressive traits and eating attitudes : a replication across American and British students

Abstract The present study examined the relationship between instrumental and expressive traits and attitudes linked to eating disorders across two Western societies. Two-hundred individuals in America and 111 individuals in Britain completed the Personal Attributes Questionnaire and the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI). Findings from the American sample supported the discrepancy hypothesis on the bulimia, drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction subscales of the EDI. Individuals low on instrumental traits reported more risky eating attitudes than those individuals high on instrumental traits. The British sample showed support for the discrepancy hypothesis as well for two of the three subscales, the drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction subscales of the EDI, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of the robustness of findings across cultures.