BALTIMORE, MD, December 20, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The American Psychological Association has published in its Psychological Bulletin, a study which examines and refutes a study published in the same journal in 1998 which claimed that child sexual abuse was not excessively harmful for children. The new study, in the November issue of the Psychological Bulletin reveals numerous problems in the 1998 study that minimized child sexual abuse including the “misreporting of original data.”
Cybercast News Service (CNS) reports that Joyanna Silberg, Ph.D., co-author of the new study also criticized the first study for reporting that most men did not suffer negative effects from childhood sexual abuse. Silberg, a child psychologist at Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Baltimore, Md., said they “failed to note that the men’s subjective perceptions did not correlate with their results on objective measure.” For example, compared to their non-abused peers, more than twice as many abused men said they had used illegal drugs, three times as many had sought therapy for emotional problems and five times as many said they had attempted suicide, reports CNS.
The November issue of the APA publication also carries an article by the authors of the 1998 study, Bruce Rind, Phillip Tromovitch and Robert Bauserman defending their work against the criticisms.
The 1998 study was hailed by pedophilia groups such as the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). Stephanie J. Dallam Leadership Council for Mental Health, Justice, and the Media, and a co-author of the current study noted that the 1998 study was used by an Arizona elementary school teacher who was convicted of abusing young boys to argue for a reduced sentence.
See the CNS coverage and the abstract from the Psychological Bulletin: https://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=Culturearchive