The prevalence of child sexual abuse in community and student samples: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Studies conducted internationally confirm that child sexual abuse is a much more widespread problem than previously thought, with even the lowest prevalence rates including a large number of victims that need to be taken into account. OBJECTIVE To carry out a meta-analysis of the prevalence of child sexual abuse in order to establish an overall international figure. METHODS Studies were retrieved from various electronic databases. The measure of interest was the prevalence of abuse reported in each article, these values being combined via a random effects model. A detailed analysis was conducted of the effects of various moderator variables. RESULTS Sixty-five articles covering 22 countries were included. The analysis showed that 7.9% of men (7.4% without outliers) and 19.7% of women (19.2% without outliers) had suffered some form of sexual abuse prior to the age of eighteen. CONCLUSIONS The results of the present meta-analysis indicate that child sexual abuse is a serious problem in the countries analysed.