Citation

Blake M, Weinberger J. Stress Trauma Crisis 2006; 9(1): 29-44.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15434610500506225

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined the impact of childhood sexual abuse upon implicit processing of intimacy-related stimuli in adulthood. Participants were 22 male and 20 female psychiatric inpatients ranging in age from 20 to 78 (M = 42). Each completed the Sexual Experiences Survey, a questionnaire derived from the Abuse Dimensions Inventory, and performed a modified emotional Stroop task in which they named the colors of neutral words, general threat words, and intimacy-related words. Contrary to prediction, the Sexually Abused group (n = 16) did not take significantly longer to color-name intimacy related words than the Non-abused group (n = 26), p = .70. However, there was a significant interaction between sexual abuse and gender (F = 6.45, p = .015). Sexually abused women performed faster than non-abused women, whereas abused men performed slower than non-abused men on the intimacy-related Stroop task. This effect retained significance even after controlling for participants' level of pathology (F = 4.80, p = .035). These results support the notion of implicit interference upon current functioning, and suggest gender differences in coping with sexual trauma.