The prevalence and probable impact of childhood and adolescent sexual experiences in Japan
Introduction & Objectives: For the past 35 years, Western society has fueled an obsession with so-called child sexual abuse (CSA). Unfortunately, the bulk of the so-called research in this area has been pseudoscience. It has been common to misleadingly include adolescents in the category of "children", to include non-contact experiences, and to include wanted events under the rubric of "abuse". These practices serve to create large prevalence rates that serve Western ideology, but result in studies providing little scientific information due to the wide range of heterogeneous experiences classified as "CSA".
No prior study has separated wanted experiences from forced or coerced experiences from experiences that were merely unwanted. Importantly, there does not appear to be any national data on such experiences in Japan.
Methods: This presentation will provide frequency and correlational analyses based on Japanese national self-report data collected by the Multinational Life Experience and Personality Project (MLEPP). The MLEPP collected data from more than 1000 Japanese adults and exhibits good coverage and representativeness across many demographic variables. In addition to data on sexual events experienced during youth, as well as data on current psychological functioning (i.e., self-esteem, anxiety, and depression), the MLEPP collected data on the participants' family environment (prior to age 16) to allow causal analyses, controlling for family background, to be conducted.
Results: The data provides detailed breakdown of the prevalence of various sexual experiences in childhood and in adolescence as well as the increase in R-squared showing the relationships between wanted, unwanted, and forced/coerced experiences and adult psychological functioning after controlling for family background variables.
Conclusions: Consistent with other national research, the data show small and often non-significant associations with adult functioning. Control for family background variables suggests that the sexual experiences have little or no long-term impact on adult functioning.
source: Research 'The Prevalence and Probable Impact of Childhood and Adolescent Sexual Experiences in Japan: separately analyzing willing, unwanted, and coerced incidents' by Philip Tromovitch; www.sexualhealthvisual.com/Video_by_Philip_Tromovitch_on_The_Prevalence_and_Probable_Impact_of_Childhood_and_Adolescent_Sexual_Experiences_in_Japan_separately_analyzing_wanted_unwanted_and_coerced_incidents.html; The 22nd Congress of the World Association for Sexual Health; Recorded in Singapore; 25-28 July 2015