ArticleArchives of sexual behavior2013
Does maltreatment in childhood affect sexual orientation in adulthood?
Article in Archives of sexual behavior, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Spirituality and Psychological Well-Being of Adults with a History of Child Abuse by Catholic Clergy: A Systematic Review of Qualitative and Quantitative Studies.Journal of religion and health · 2025Pooled it
- Adverse childhood experiences and risk of living with HIV among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) people: a cross-sectional study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- Prevalence of Diverse Genders and Sexualities in Australia and Associations With Five Forms of Child Maltreatment and Multi-type Maltreatment.Child maltreatment · 2025Article
- Biological, genetic, neurological and environmental influences on homosexuality-a narrative review.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Review
- Older Gay Men's Sexual Experiences as Boys with Men: An Empirical and Narrative Analysis.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Genetic and Environmental Influences on Sexual Orientation: Moderation by Childhood Gender Nonconformity and Early-Life Adversity.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Sexual Compulsivity Mediates the Association Between Childhood Sexual Abuse and Condom Use Resistance Among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Women.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Veterans.American journal of preventive medicine · 2023Article
- Adverse childhood experiences and mental health problems in a nationally representative study of heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual Danes.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2022Article
- Severe impact of late diagnosis of congenital adrenal hyperplasia on gender identity, sexual orientation and function: case report and review of the literature.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- The Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women Couples Study: Protocol for a Study of Stress, Hazardous Drinking, and Intimate Partner Aggression Among Sexual Minority Women and Their Partners.JMIR research protocols · 2021Article
- Effect of adverse childhood experiences and DNA methylation on male sexual orientation.Zhong nan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Central South University. Medical sciences · 2021Article
- Psychiatric Impact of Organized and Ritual Child Sexual Abuse: Cross-Sectional Findings from Individuals Who Report Being Victimized.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
- Maternal Exposure to Childhood Abuse is Associated with Mate Selection: Implications for Autism in Offspring.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2017Article
- A response to the Academy of Science of South Africa's Diversity in Human Sexuality Report.The Linacre quarterly · 2015Article
- Professional care for unwanted same-sex attraction: What does the research say?The Linacre quarterly · 2015Review
- The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) Waves 1 and 2: review and summary of findings.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2015Review
- Models and better evidence needed to clarify causality: a response to Bailey, Ellingson, and Bailey (2014).Archives of sexual behavior · 2015Article
- Association of autistic traits in adulthood with childhood abuse, interpersonal victimization, and posttraumatic stress.Child abuse & neglect · 2015Article
- Same-sex sexual attraction does not spread in adolescent social networks.Archives of sexual behavior · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Epidemiological studies find a positive association between physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and witnessing violence in childhood and same-sex sexuality in adulthood, but studies directly assessing the association between these diverse types of maltreatment and sexuality cannot disentangle the causal direction because the sequencing of maltreatment and emerging sexuality is difficult to ascertain. Nascent same-sex orientation may increase risk of maltreatment; alternatively, maltreatment may shape sexual orientation. Our study used instrumental variable models based on family characteristics that predict maltreatment but are not plausibly influenced by sexual orientation (e.g., having a stepparent) as natural experiments to investigate whether maltreatment might increase the likelihood of same-sex sexuality in a nationally representative sample (n = 34,653). In instrumental variable models, history of sexual abuse predicted increased prevalence of same-sex attraction by 2.0 percentage points [95 % confidence interval (CI) = 1.4-2.5], any same-sex partners by 1.4 percentage points (95 % CI = 1.0-1.9), and same-sex identity by 0.7 percentage points (95 % CI = 0.4-0.9). Effects of sexual abuse on men's sexual orientation were substantially larger than on women's. Effects of non-sexual maltreatment were significant only for men and women's sexual identity and women's same-sex partners. While point estimates suggest much of the association between maltreatment and sexual orientation may be due to the effects of maltreatment on sexual orientation, confidence intervals were wide. Our results suggest that causal relationships driving the association between sexual orientation and childhood abuse may be bidirectional, may differ by type of abuse, and may differ by sex. Better understanding of this potentially complex causal structure is critical to developing targeted strategies to reduce sexual orientation disparities in exposure to abuse.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.